


call it magic

by IzzieBee



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Angst with a Happy Ending, Best Friends, Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Friends, Don't @ me about which house all the kids are in, Dragons, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Karolina POV, Mild Sexual Content, Mutual Pining, Nico POV, Pride is just a charity group right?, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn, Underage Drinking, background Gert/Chase
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-03-10 21:00:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 48,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13509690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IzzieBee/pseuds/IzzieBee
Summary: Karolina.In her muggle books, kids Nico's age always had best friends, and she knew right away that Karolina was going to be her’s.Her best friend.OrThe Hogwarts AU, where Nico, Karolina, and the rest of the team, grow up together at Hogwarts, where, true to form, nothing is as it appears.





	1. eight years old

**Author's Note:**

> Rating G

Nico just didn’t get the point of being pretty. 

She may only be only eight, but Mom had told her more than once that she was clever and her mom was the smartest witch in the whole world, so she must be right. Plus, it was Mom who always insisted what was in a witches head was the most important thing ; that beauty fades, and even before it does, it often hides something insidious inside. 

Her Mom would know, she was healer after all. She had told her all about how charms and potions could seem good and pure, and then destroy you from the inside out. 

So, she didn’t really notice (or care) who was pretty, or handsome, of if she was pretty herself. Her Dad called her and Amy pretty before they both started correcting him, saying ‘we are clever not pretty’, he mumbled something about ‘not mutually exclusive’, but he stopped calling them that. 

Why would Nico worry about being pretty, anyway, (which as far as she could tell you either were or weren’t, and if you weren’t there wasn’t much you could do to fix it), when there were only so many hours in the day? Why waist all that energy and time?

Nico was far to busy for all that rubbish. Afterall she had lessons with her tutor for hours (reading, magic history and arithmetic, not even magic). That left too little time as it was to do everything she actually liked to do, like reading her muggle mystery books (Nancy Drew was her favorite) or racing Amy on there brooms. Amy was better than her now, but when she went to Hogwarts next year, Nico would practice every day, while Amy had to use the school brooms and not her trusty Cleansweep, so there. 

All these things considered, Nico made it a habit that she wouldn’t notice if someone was pretty or handsom or whatever. She did pretty well, all things considered, until a few months later. 

It was her parents Christmas party. 

Her mom was nervous because they were inviting there old friends from Hogwarts, who they hadn’t seen for years and years and years. Mom had tried on three diferent pairs of dress robes, even though Dad kept telling her she looked great, she kept sighing and changing into new ones, or changing her hair or earings with a swish of her wand. 

Amy and Nico were put in dress robes too, over there strong objections; dark red and navy blue velvet, respectively. Her mom even made here wear a matching velvet bow in her hair. Her robes were itchy, and she would much rather being wearing her muggle overalls, but her Mom had a look on her face that made her sure she didn’t want to argue. 

It didn’t stop her from pouting in the dining room, hoping her mother would notice and let her change. 

Mom didn’t notice, but her dad did. 

“You will have fun tonight,” Dad promised, looking up from his work, a patient chart if Nico had to guess, quill in hand and a small smile on his face. Nico wasn’t sure how he could concentrate, while Mom stomped arround, scaring the house elves, “Our… Friends… Are bringing their children, some of them are your age, Nico.”

Nico perked up imediatly, she never got to meet other witches and wizards her own age. Amy had been avoiding her, as of late, saying that she was getting to big for games- after all she was going to leave for Hogwarts in a few short months, (when she said that the first time, Nico ran to her room in tears, she pretended, from then on, that it didn’t bother her, but it still stung like dirt rubbed in a scrapped knee). 

None of that mattered, though, because there were a bunch of new young witches and wizards she had never met before. Nico and Amy didn’t have any cousins to play with, and theire house, big and imposing, was near Isle of Skye in Scotland, she loved her home set against the rolling hills, with the Scottish coastline on the horizon, but there was no one living with in a ten mile radius of them, muggle or wizard or otherwise. 

She didn’t even get to go to school, and wouldn’t go to school unitl her eleventh birthday when she would go to hogwarts. She had a muggle born tutor for a few years, who told them about elementary schools, with tether ball and science lessoons and school lunches, and it all sounded like, well, magic. Her tutor’s name was Emily, and she was the coolest, but she left suddenly, and Mom wouldn’t tell her why (she left a pile of Nancy Drew books under Nico’s bed though, before she left). 

Now she only had Amy, who didn’t want to spend any time with her, Annabelle who was nice but a stranger, not a friend, and her parents who were never home, and instead, were always in London at St. Mungos. 

She didn’t blame Annabelle, who really was very nice, or her sister for wanting to grow up, or her parents who were healing wizards and witches, but...

She was so lonely, so much of the time, it was hard not to ache with it. 

New friends, even just the possibility of new friends. It was all very exciting. 

People started filing into the house around seven, appirating on the doorstep, flying and landing on the lawn and then placing there brooms in the shed, or with floo powder using the fire place in the dining hall. 

Her Dad was right (like usual), she did have fun; even if there were far to many adult witches and wizards laughing loudly, and into there fizzy drinks (she wasn’t sure why anyone would want to drink something called firewhisky, but Adults were weird). 

Nico kept her eyes on the door and fireplace, trying to avoid her Mom who kept trying to introduce her too her collegues and friends, but she just wanted to see the young witches and wizards, the ones Dad had told her would be coming. 

It didn’t take long for them to arrive, in fact, it was like, a quarter past seven, they all came at the exact same time. 

Two young wizards, and three young witches. 

Molly was nice, but she was little, only five years old, and she wouldn’t let go of her mom’s hand. She fell asleep on one of the couches halfway through the party, and by then Nico had only managed to say a few words to her. 

Alex seemed smart, but he and Amy had run off to look at her collection of Muggle technology (she took it apart, and planned on putting it back together with magic, once she learned how). That made her happy though, even if Amy didn’t want to spend time with her, she knew that Amy ached for a friend, a grown up friend (even though Alex was her age, not even Amy’s, but she tried to take this anger and frustration, and shove it away). 

It was easier than it should have been, because there were still three other witches and wizards who seemed like they wanted to be her friends, her new friends (new friends, just getting to used to those word’s was better than Christmas morning and her birthday, all rolled into one.) 

There names were Gert, Chase and Karolina, and they were all eight like her, and they would be in the same year at Hogwarts, and they reflected back the same manic, nervous energy, as though they too longed to be friends, and were scared that if they did the wrong thing, there chance would float away as quickly as it arrived. 

It made Nico feel, a bit, more at ease, like she was not as alone in her lonliness as she had once believed. 

Gert had long brown hair and thin rimmed glasses, and could do five cartwheels in a row (her parents let her wear trousers under her dress robes, lucky). Gert was really smart, and talked really fast, and Nico felt a bit winded after talking to her (Chase looked like he was just hit by a bus, so she figured she was in good company.) 

Chase is tall for there age,and he followed quiditch too. She could talk to him about Quidditch for ages, which is great because Karolina loves Quidditch, too, so they all had something in common. 

Karolina.

In her muggle books, kids Nico’s age always had best friends, and she knew right away that Karolina was going to be her’s. 

Her best friend. 

Karolina knew all about magical history and quidditch, and she could do muggle magic trick’s with playing cards that weren’t even charmed because her dad was muggle born and he taught her. She was going to be Slytherine house, like her mom, and Nico’s mom and dad, and play as a Chaser just like her dad did (who used to play for Ireland, how cool was that!) 

“My dad works for the ministry now,” Karolina said, her hands gesturing wildly, and her eyes bright, “He works for the magical games and sports department. I got to go see the world cup in Morrocco this year-”

“Wow,” Chase said looking impressed.

“My parents just took me to Romania,” Gert glowered as she crossed her arms in front of her, “to look at stupid dragons.”

“You have gotten to see a dragon before,” Karolina lit up even more, which Nico was supprised was possible; it was like she was an infinite energy supply, “like in person?”

Gert smiled and uncrossed her arms and launched into a story about romanian dragons. Chase’s eyes just kept getting bigger and bigger as the story continued. Nico sneaked a look at Karolina, who smiled wide in return. 

She really tired not to notice, and she felt guilty because Karolina is smart, kind and funny, so she knew she should not have noticed how she looked. 

And she really did try… But...

Karolina was smart, kind and funny, and she was also pretty. She lit up the whole room with her wide smile (two teeth missing), and long blonde hair in two braids. Being pretty was not something that she could deny, but it was something she could ignore, because Karolina was, simply put, awesome. 

She wouldn’t tell the others, but Karolina was her favorite new friend. Maybe, one day, she would get to call her, her best friend. 

“Do you live in Scotland?” Nico asked, hoping that, by some miracle, she had been wrong, and they weren’t isolated in this manor house, and that Karolina was just down the lane. 

Karolina shook her head, and Nico’s stomach dropped. 

“I live in London,” Karolina said mournfully.

“Oh.” 

“I live all over,” Gert piped up, “Because of my parents job.”

“Magical Zooligists,” Chase sighed, half dreamily, “Way cooler than being a potions master.”

He then whipped his head around suddenly, like his father would appear right behind his back.

“It sounds really interesting, Gert,” Karolina smiled, “My parents won’t even let me get a familiar until I go to school…”

Gert then launched into a monologue about the animals that had lived with there family at one time or another, Nico tried to stay interested (it shouldn’t have been so hard, it really was interesting), but she wanted to hear about Karolina, and what she thought… about everything.

“Will you write to me?” Karolina asked, when Gert and Chase went to grab more ginger snaps (they were really, really good), “You can tell me more about yourself. I want to know everything-”

“I can send you my copies of Nancy Drew, when I’m finished with them,” Nico said, “If you want.”

Karolina nodded eagerly. 

“My dad get’s lots of tickets for quidditch games, maybe we can go to one-”

“Karolina,” a woman in white silk dress robes, put her hand on Karolina’s shoulders, “Say goodbye to your new friend.”

“Goodbye.” Karolina said, and she threw her arms around Nicos shoulders and hugged her, and a suddenly as it started, it stopped, and she was walking away, holding hands with the strict looking woman, who must have been her mom. 

“Bye.”

Chase and Gert left a little while later, and with them Molly and Alex. Amy went to bed when he left, not saying goodnight to anyone as she disapeared. Nico stayed up though, sitting by the fireplace, with a ginger snap in hand, watching people disapear into the flames, echoing “Merry Christmas”. She didn’t want this night to end, she couldn’t rember the last time she had been this happy. 

It wasn’t until all the party guest’s left, and the house elves emerged from the kitchens, to pick up the crackers and party crowns, cups and cookie crumbshad left, that her father found her, his expression supprised. She supposed, he had thought she had gone up stairs when Amy had. and her father carried her up to bed, way past when she was supposed to fall asleep. 

He scooped her up, like she was still little, which usually would have made her giggle, but now she just leaned into it, feeling bone tired.

“When can I see my new friends again,” she whispered into her dad’s neck.

“Soon, Nico,” Her dad didn’t sound sad exactly, but he didn’t sound happy either, “I think you will see them soon.”

Nico didn’t have the energy to figure out what that meant, so she just shrugged, and let her father tuck her into bed, blowing out the candles with one quick, silent, flick of his wand. 

“Goodnight,” Dad said, pausing at the doorway. 

“Goodnight,” Nico whispered back, and as soon as the door closed, it was like she was imbued with a new jolt of energy, and she was out of her bed, lighting the candle at her desk. 

She took out the stationary and quils she had recieved for Christmas last year, and still had not had a chance to use. Nico didn’t have her own Owl, so she couldn’t send the letter tonight, but it wouldn’t hurt to have the letter finished, so she could send it out with Portree in the morning, first thing. 

She paused for a second, wondering if Karolina had really meant it, if she really did want to send letters back and forth. 

The moment of doubt was snuffed out almost imdeiatly. She wouldn’t know, if she didn’t try. 

Nico wanted to try. 

 

Dear Karolina,

This is your new friend, Nico.


	2. (year 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karolina Dean's first year at Hogwarts; it’s not exactly what she expected, but at least she has her friends to lean on.
> 
> Rated G

Karolina was trying, valiantly, not to bounce up and down in place; it wasn’t working very well and she knew she probably looked exceedingly odd, but she could hardly stop herself, she felt like chocolate frog stuck in it’s box. 

The smell of the oil on the train tracks, the sound of people pushing past and the muffled announcements playing on speakers over head. She could feel the sun, refracting through the glass ceiling (she loved these rare, sunny, London days that seemed to stretch on forever, before being obscured by gloomy clouds). 

She wanted to soak up every drop of this moment.

She was here, she was actually here at Kings Cross station. The signs for platform 9 ¾ were displayed proudly and the Hogwarts Express, gleaming and freshly shined sat on the tracks, steam billowing, and more wizards and witches milling about then she had seen in her entire life. 

When she had woken up at 4 AM this morning she had done her hair four times (she ended up, just braiding her long blonde hair in it’s usual braid down the length of her back). She had double, then triple checked the the contents of her trunk.

Then she made sure Lucy, her bengal kitten and familiar, was set for the train ride. A little less then a year old, she had spots that looked like a tiger’s and the temperament of a puppy; she had been a birthday present, for her eleventh birthday, from her father. Her mother thought she was named after the Australian Qudditch player, but she was actually named after the old song from her dad’s muggle radio (the radio her mom did not know about and would not approve of if she did). Lucy had slept curled up in a ball at her feet, or on particularly cold nights, wedged between her neck and shoulder; Karolina thanked her stars that cats were approved familiars at Hogwarts, there was no way she could leave Lucy behind.

Truth be told, Karolina double checked Lucy’s things more than she checked the contents of her own trunk (if she forgot eye of newt, she figured she could borrow some from someone else for a week or two, but if she didn’t have Lucy’s favorite mouse toy, charmed to run around the room a fraction slower than a real mouse so she could actually catch it, she didn’t know what she would do). Karolina didn’t really need to triple or even double check, though; she had all of her treats and toys in Lucy’s carrier, ready to go for three days. Her dad charmed the carrier, so that it looked like a small picnic basket on the outside, but inside, was about the size of a broom closet, complete with cat bed, water dish, toys and scratching post.

Even with all this checking, Karolina was still ready a full two hours before her and her dad needed to leave for Kings Cross station. While her father had drunk his coffee and puttered about the house, Karolina had tried to entertain herself, by playing with Lucy (who really just wanted to sleep), and by reading the paper (the daily prophet was kind of depressing), until finally it was time.

And now she was here, and she could hardly contain herself. 

“Someone’s excited,” Dad teased, his smile wide “Can’t wait to see Hogwarts?”

People kept stopping in there tracks, doing a double take, as they passed with there children and there trunks. She knew her father was famous, former captain of the Kenmare Kestrels and then of Ireland, the first captain to bring Ireland to the world cup in 100 years (even if he didn’t manage to win). She had seen the trophies and his jersey hung up in his office at home. The Daily Prophet even put a picture of the two of them when they went to a local London Quidditch match a year ago, (though the article talked more about her father’s looks, annoyingly, more than anything else). When she was with her father in the wizarding world, people stopped and stared and tried to take pictures while they passed and asked for his autograph. 

Karolina didn’t think she would ever get used to it. It was still weird to think of Dad as anything but her father. 

“Yep,” Karolina nodded, her smile wide, trying to ignore a middle aged witch trying to furtively take pictures of her father, while three young wizards (obviously her children) tugged at her robes. “I have been reading about Hogwarts for years, I can’t believe I will actually see it today...”

Her father had laughed when she asked for ‘Hogwarts, A History’, for Christmas last year, but he had gotten it for her anyway. She didn’t know why people thought magic history was boring, it was fascinating, filled with colorful characters, witches and wizards and magical beings doing daring deeds. She knew about the merepeople and giant squid living in the lake, and the horrors and wonders of the Forbidden Forest. She couldn’t wait to stand on the moving staircases, and see all of the portraits lining the walls, (Karolina would have to stop herself to regarding them as old friends, because she knew there subjects so well from all her readings). 

She couldn’t wait to see Hogwarts in person, it would be like meeting a friend, in person, for the first time. 

As much as she wanted to be at Hogwarts, he couldn’t wait to see Nico, even more. 

They met a couple years ago, at Nico’s family’s Christmas party, and they had only seen each other in person when there parents met up for there charity club, two or three times a year (which were her favorite days of the year, even though they always put her mother in a rotten mood). 

They wrote letters almost every week, though, sometimes two or three times a week. Sometimes Karolina would get two or three letters in a row before she had the chance to put her response in the post, or the same would happen to Nico, so they would receive three letters at the same time, making it hard to keep straight who was responding to who and from what letter. Even when this didn’t happen there was a intensity to these letters, that were written, often, using several feet of parchment, like they were really diaries being shipped back and forth, no secret to small or big to share. Even there penmanship would grow hurried, when they wrote to one and other, ink splotches and messy cursive blending into print and then back again, like if they didn’t get down every single thought down that instant it would be lost to one another, forever. 

Her dad teased her about it, how they must be very interesting young witches to have so much to talk about. The embarrassing thing was, they really didn’t; it wasn’t like either of them had that much going on in there lives. They were both stuck in grand houses (Nico’s family manor in Scotland, and Karolina’s fine townhouse in the heart of London), with tutors and house elves too scared of both of there mothers to really talk to them. 

Neither had secrets or lives exciting enough to justify such constant communication, and yet that didn’t stop either of them from sharing everything. They talked about there parents, and about Amy, and about how the rest of the ‘pride kids’ (as Alex once jokingly called them, but, much to his dismay, the name stuck), were doing. They discussed at length how Alex and Amy were liking Hogwarts (this year, Alex would be a second year, and Amy a third), and Slytherin House, (they both liked it a great deal, especially when Slytherin one the house cup last year). They talked about there infrequent notes from Gert, where she enclosed moving pictures of rare magical creatures, and less often, her and Molly (the last trip the family went on, to America, looked wonderful, they even saw a thunderbird!) Neither of them were as sure how Chase was doing, when he wrote, he usually dodged there personal questions and instead changed the subject to Quidditch (they both tried to convince themselves that it was just because Chase was a silly boy, not good at talking about himself, and not because there was anything more insidious going on in the Stein house). They both felt better when Gert let slip in one of her letters that she and Chase wrote to each other almost every week.

Karolina knew from experience, how helpful it was to have someone to talk to, even if that person didn’t have the ability to change anything. 

They discussed, at length about which house they would be sorted into; they figured they both would be sorted into Slytherin (there parents were all sorted there, well, except for Karolina’s dad, and Amy was in Slytherin too). Karolina’s mother had told her, not too subtly, that everyone in her family had been sorted into this house, and she knew Nico got a similar talk from her own mother. Although neither liked the weight of there mother’s expectations, they did talk about how wonderful it would be to share a dorm room, after years of only seeing each other every six months. 

They didn’t just talk about things of great importance though, they were just as likely to spend three feet of parchment talking about the team roster and strategies of a Quidditch team. They often talked about how Scotland, Ireland and Britain were doing, and the likely hood of them making it into the world cup (the last three years that likely hood had been somewhere between zip and nil). Karolina rooted for the Kenmare Kestrels, her dad’s old team, while Nico supported the Pride of Portree, and they would tease each other endlessly when the other’s team lost, (which Karolina rarely had the pleasure of doing, since her Kestrels, seemed winning averse). 

They also, traded chocolate frog cards, not just letters. Muggle mystery books, too, (they had moved on from Nancy Drew and were now on Agatha Christie- Karolina had just finished The Crooked House, and she wasn’t able to sleep for weeks). They also cut out clips from wizard newspapers and magazine’s that they thought would make the other one laugh or the other would think was interesting, (Nico always kept a look out for articles discussing magical history, especially regarding foreign countries, while Karolina looked for articles about fashion, potions and anything regarding muggles). 

Nico was her best friend in the entire world. Not that she had many friends, she knew there had to be other young witches and wizards in London's, but her parents never let her meet any of them. Nico would still be her best friend though, even if she was turning down offers of sleepovers every week. 

They clicked, the two of them, just like Chase and Gert or Alex and Amy. She wasn’t exactly sure why, but if she had to guess, it was a special kind of magic that even Hogwarts can’t teach, it just happens. 

Karolina figured, you either click or you don’t. Nico and Karolina didn’t click because they were similar though, it was something else. 

Nico’s sense of humour was dark, bordering on morbid; she was so witty, that sometimes Karolina would re-read her letters and marvel, convinced she must have a team of writers feeding her lines and jokes. Karolina knew she was smart (though not as much or in the way her mother would like), but she didn’t have any of the darkness in her own sense of humour. She knew that she came off as naive and sweet, while, even at eleven, Nico came off as, well, cunning (she would be sorted into Slytherin for sure, Karolina’s stomach dropped, despite what they decided, Karolina was growing to think, more and more, that Slytherin was not going to be the place for her).

Nico, though she followed Quidditch religiously, had lost all interest in playing the sport after she beat her sister in a broom race when she was nine. Karolina would prefer to always be on her broom, she felt more comfortable flying than she did walking all the time. When she fell asleep at night, Lucy curled up at her feet, she dreamed of winning the world cup, while Nico just wanted to see Scotland play at the world cup (she joked in one of her letters, that Nico would deign to come see Britain play against someone besides Scotland, if and only if Karolina was playing for them). 

Karolina liked wearing robes and dressrobes, and doing her hair in elaborate braids and Nico preferred muggle jeans and comfortable sweaters in dark colors. Nico had a natural affinity for potions (thanks to one rule bending tutor), and when Karolina tried to learn, with a similar minded tutor of her own, she had almost blown up her kitchen. Karolina’s familiar was a cat, and Nico’s was an owl named Glen, short for Glendale. 

Nico once wrote in response of Karolina’s worries about there differences:

“Karolina, you worry too much (another thing we don’t have in common by the way). We are friends because of our differences, not in-spite of them. We are like puzzle pieces or the sun and the moon. We each bring something that the other lacks. Thats why we are friends, that’s why we fit together.”

Karolina kept that letter close by (it was currently folded up in her diary), and she re-read it on her worst days, and the days she missed Nico the most. 

“Were did you just go off too-” Dad interrupted her thoughts, and Karolina had to shake away her day dreams.

“Just nervous I guess,” it wasn’t quite a lie, but it wasn’t quite the truth either. 

“I’m sorry your mom couldn’t be here today-”

“Me too,” Karolina looked down and away as she said it because her dad could always tell when she was lying. 

But she wasn’t. Not really. Her mother was one of the most powerful witches in England, she was head of Magical Law Enforcement, the youngest ever. It was like she didn’t walk, she glided. It was like she glowed from within, radiating pure power. 

Karolina knew she had always been a disappointment, when friends of her mothers, important witches and wizards met her, they always told her mom how pretty she was. It didn’t matter how many also said she was charming, or clever, or how she was sure to be a great witch like her mother, it was like it was the only thing her mother heard. 

It was like Karolina was sentenced to be pretty, and she didn’t get to be anything else, and her mother hated her for it. 

She is still reliving the moment when she puttered downstairs, there townhouse on Portabello Row, grander then the ones on either side because of the charms that made the rooms grow larger and the staircases elongate. When she paused, mid step, her do to the (unfortunately) familiar sound of her parents screaming at each other. Her parents were in love, completely, (they clicked, they were ‘it’ for each other, which confused Karolina to no end, her father, who was so sweet, and her mother, who was, well not, seemingly had nothing in common). 

It seemed like the only time that the pair fought, it was because of Karolina. 

“You are too hard on her,” Karolina hardly recognized her fathers voice when he yelled, it was like it belonged to a different person. 

“You are not hard enough,” her mothers voice cracked like it it only did when she was angry. 

“Leslie,” Her father sounded tired, like they had this conversation before, probably more than once. 

“Face the facts Frank,” her mother hissed, “Your daughter is absolutely ordinary, thanks in no small part to you.”

Karolina went back up stairs, quietly shutting the door behind her before she burst into tears. 

“Whatever house you end up in,” Frank said quietly, bringing Karolina back to the present, “Remember, me and your mother love you to pieces.”

Karolina smiled and nodded, but she had a feeling it did not really meet her eyes.

Her dad was the one who took her to Diagon Alley to get her books and robes (and hats and scarves and socks, that would all turn her house colors the night after the sorting hat made it’s choice). Her dad, who played one on one Quidditch with her on weekends, and read to her when she was a child. He took her to Quidditch matches, and to work with him, showing her around the imposing Ministry of Magic, holding her hand the entire time. Her dad, raised her, and her mother was never home (when she was, she only looked at Karolina long enough to find her disappointment ). 

Her father was her parent, and her mother was, something else. 

“Karolina!” She heard something akin to a shriek and felt arms around her neck before she saw her.

“Nico!” Karolina smiled and leaned into the hug, it was several seconds before either of them even began to let go. 

“I missed you so much.” Nico said; she was beaming from ear to ear, her dark hair in pony tale. 

 

“I missed you more.” Karolina wasn’t teasing, she meant it painfully scencere. “Oh hey Amy.”

She had just noticed Nico’s sister, with her own trunk, and with her crisp silver and green tie and scarf. 

“Hey Karolina,” Amy said, her hand up in an awkward half wave, it was only then that she realized she was still half holding Nico, she quickly let go all the way, her hands going back to her own trunk. 

“Hi Amy!” Karolina said, putting her hand up in the approximation of a wave, in return. 

Amy just smirked. 

“Where’s Glendale?” Karolina said, looking at the empty cage atatched to Nico’s trunk. 

“Flying ahead with El,” Karolina was confused for a second then she remembered that was Amy’s owl. 

“Right,” Karolina nodded, “Where’s everyone else?” 

“Let’s find them on the train,” said Amy, looking at the clock on the wall, “then we can save them a compartment.”

“Wait your going to sit with me,” Nico looked up at her sister with a grin. 

“Of course,” Amy ruffled her hair, “It’s your first trip to Hogwarts, weirdo.”

“You just want to see Alex,” Nico teased, she looked over at Karolina, “He was all she could talk about this summer, and Alex promised Gert he would sit with us-”

Amy rolled her eyes. 

“That too,” Amy said, “But we are in the same house. I don’t really care if I see him on the train-”

“Right.”

“I think it’s time to for me to go,” her Dad said, and Karolina felt guilty; for a second she had forgotten he was even there. 

“Ok.” Karolina nodded, before throwing her arms around his middle, “I am going to miss you.” 

“I’ll miss you too.” Her dad said with a smile, “Have a wonderful year at Hogwarts, write as much as you want.”

“I will.” After Karolina let go, she was half dragged off the platform and onto the train with the others. She was barely able to turn, glimpsing her father out one of the windows, to wave goodbye. 

\------------

They found Chase, Alex and Gert when they were walking down the halls, and quickly were able to grab a compartment, one of the last empty ones. It was a flurry of semi-organized chaos, that Karolina did her best to soak up: parents saying goodbye to there children, near collisions of trolleys, students running up to friends for bear hugs, squaking owls, meowing cats, and toads nearly jumping out of there owners hands. 

Karolina loved it. 

Even when they closed the door of there own compartment, leaving it just the six of them, there was still a flurry of excitement and movement. They were so busy, hugging and saying hello, and securing there trunks, and settling there familiars, that Karolina hardly noticed when the train left the station.

They were really on the Hogwarts Express, no matter how much she thought about it, it all seemed like a wonderful dream. 

Alex and Amy disappeared down the hall, to visit the compartments down the hall filled with Slytherine second and third years, despite there promise, within the first twenty minutes on the train. 

Nico said she didn’t mind, but Karolina knew she was lying. 

Gert did her best to keep them entertained, telling them stories about living on the road, and magical creatures she had seen, Chase and Nico asked her questions, while Karolina opened up the cat carrier so Lucy could explore the compartment. 

After a while even Gert couldn’t keep up the stories by herself, and the compartment was lulled into quiet, and Karolina and the others stared out the window. 

It was then that Karolina realized that the four of them really didn’t know each other that well. Nico and Karolina knew every aspect of each others lives, but even the two of them had not spent more than five hours, in total, in each others company. It made it hard to look at any of them, all of a sudden, so just starred at her lap, where Lucy had curled up, purring, enjoying the light streaming in from the compartments window. 

What if they don’t like me, Karolina wondered to herself, when they get to know me for real.They didn’t have to stay friends with her, Karolina realized, they could all move on, and she could be left alone. 

Just because there parents were friends, doesn’t mean they had to be. 

This realization was unnerving. 

“Show me your wands” Gert said suddenly, breaking the not quite comfortable silence, (one of the things Karolina noticed, even when they were at Pride meetings, Gert did not like the moments were no one was speaking, and she had an almost compulsive need to fill the quiet).

In this moment though, Karolina was grateful. She rummaged through the bag next to her, careful not to jostle Lucy.

“Chestnut, eleven inches, and a pheonix feather core,” Karolina said proudly; she loved just looking at her wand’s reddish color, the simple but elegant carvings at the handle. She knew the second she held it, it was going to be hers. Good thing too, it took her almost two hours to find the right wand. a uncharacteristically empathetic moment, her mother told her the longer it took to find the right wand, the more powerful the witch or wizard. “Apparently chestnut wands often go to natural fliers-”

“So it’s perfect for you!” Nico nodded, leaning in to inspect, “Pheonix feather, that’s rather unusual.” 

“Yah,” Karolina nodded, considering “But not too much, Dad has a veela core in his wand. Mr. Olivander doesn’t even make wands with them-”

“Vine, nine inches,” Gert said, bringing out a beautiful wand, light in color, but the variations in the woods created an almost design like constalations, “Unicorn core-”

“Me too,” said Chase quickly holding his up, it already had smudges all down the side, “Well unicorn core is the same. Mine’s 10 ¾ inches, and English Oak.”

“So identical,” Gert dead paned, and Chase blushed. 

“What about your’s Nico?” Karolina asked quickly.

Nico suddenly looked self conscious. 

“It’s unusually small,” Nico blushed, uncharacteristically bashful, “That’s what Mom and Amy said. It probably means I will hardly be able to cast anything-”

“That’s not true Nico,” Karolina said, “You will be an amazing witch. Let us see your wand, please.”

Nico was still blushing, but looked a bit happier. 

“Ok.” Nico rummaged around her bag, bringing out her wand, “Ebony and dragon heartstring core, eight inches.”

Karolina’s mouth dropped open. It was the prettiest wand she had ever seen, it looked like polished obsidian, matching the shine of Nico’s hair. 

“It’s wonderful,” Karolina said with a smile.

After that they found there voices again, and they chatted about nothing and everything. Eventually Alex and Amy arrived back, with there arms full of chocolate frogs, liquorice, wands, pumpkin juice, and meat pies. 

“We weren’t going to let you guys pay,” Amy said with a smile, when Chase tried to hand her a handful of sycles, “It’s your first trip on the Hogwarts express. I did this for Alex his first year-”

“And we will do it for Molly,” Alex finished, “When it’s her first ride.”

“Cool,” smiled Karolina, suddenly feeling warm in her stomach, like she just downed a vat of hot chocolate. 

After they ate (even the chocolate frogs had never tasted better), the six of them settled in, happy and tired from all the good food. 

Alex started reading the Daily Prophet, while Amy had her nose in a transfiguration textbook. Gert and Chase broke out a deck of wizard cards, while Karolina threw a ball for Lucy (who actually played fetch, she really was the weirdest cat). Nico played with her Karolina’s hair, braiding and unbraiding sections of her hair. 

“She’s not a ‘my little pony’,” snarked Gert. Everyone looked at her confused, “Molly used to have one. It’s a muggle thing… Never mind.” 

Everyone shrugged. 

Eventually, the conversation turned to the sorting, that is to say, Gert brought it up out of nowhere, bringing there comfortable silence to a resounding halt. 

“I don’t know where I will be sorted,” Gert said. “I just don’t want to be in Slytherina. I don’t care about the supposed changes to doctrine-”

Gert was referring to the changes made after the death of Voldemort nearly thirty years before. The headmistress at the time decided there was a needed change in Hogwarts doctrine after so many of it’s alumnis turned to dark magic. One of the main changes was that Slytherin would have to accept muggle born students who were resourceful, cunning and valued tradition and fraternity (the rational that ‘pure blood pride’ and muggle hatred groups would have more trouble organizing when they were not confined to one house, and the members had muggle born roommates). 

The idea was integration to stem hatred. Since it’s implementation it had worked fairly well, if not perfectly. Some pure blood families still hated muggles and muggle borns, but it was less common, (at least in public). There were also no cases of active Death Eaters or neo-Death Eaters in the UK in at least twenty years.

Still Slytherin house still carried the stain of dark magic, despite nearly two generations of separation from Voldemort and his ilk. 

“Why not?” Amy said, her head whipping around, Alex looked up from his book, and looked over warily.”

“They aren’t exactly accepting-”

“That was the past.” Amy said quickly, her voice rising,“Muggleborns can be sorted into Slytherin now, can’t they-”

“But how many actually are.” Gert protested, “And no halflings have been, ever-”

“Halflings?” Nico asked. 

“Like half Giant,” Karolina said quietly, “Or part Vela or Goblin.”

It might be fashionable to be ‘pro muggle born’, but there were some things that pureblood wizard families could not abide by, and the ideas about people with non-human ancestors ran rampant (part Goblins were supposedly greedy and bloodthirsty, while part Vela’s slept with and then killed men, and part Giants, well, you were presumed a cannibal and killer). 

Karolina had never understood this, she was taught to value all wizards, all humans really, on there own actions, why should she judge magical beings, instead, by there reputations?

“We don’t decide whose sorted,” Alex was starting to get angry.

“No one’s saying that,” Karolina said softly, “Gert, wherever you end up will be the right place. The sorting hat knows best, even if where that is, is Slytherin.”

“I guess,” Gert crossed her arms and stared out the window. Karolina, personally, didn’t think Gert had anything to worry about, she was much to outspoken to be considered cunning by anyone. 

“My parents were in Hufflepuff,” Gert said, looking out the window. “They loved it there.”

Karolina scratched Lucy’s head, and her cat looked up at her expectantly. Karolina didn’t think Hufflepuff was the place for Gert, either, but she knew better than to say it. 

“Look,” Alex said, his face softening, “My parents had there hearts set on me being in Gryffendor, but they came around.”

Karolina looked at Alex; his parents were two of most famous Aurors in the world, and there son was sorted into a house that still had the stain of dark magic.

Chase wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. Victor Stein was a head boy while he was in Slytherin and his wife, Janet, was a muggle. There was no doubt where he was expected to be sorted. 

Karolina looked around there compartment, at all of the faces that seemed so young (whenever she had thought about Hogwarts students, as a child, she imagined them older, mini witches and wizards, at the brink of adulthood). 

As she turned to look out the window, she realized that everyone in this compartment had expectations thrust upon them, in one way or another. Karolina knew that sorting was supposed to be about the individual, but often, nearly always, it reflected back on the student’s family as well, reverberating through this small wizarding community of the UK. 

Alex’s parents had wanted him to be in Gryffendor, and yet he had been sorted into Slytherin, they still loved him (she assumed, she don’t think the two of them will ever be close enough for her to ask a question like that). She knew Gert’s parents were both sorted into Hufflepuff, and Chase and Nico’s parents wanted them to be sorted into Slytherin. 

Everyone would live up to or would not live up to, those expectations. Except for Karolina. No matter what she did, she would disappoint one of her parents. Despite what her father said, she knew he hoped she was sorted into Hufflepuff, and her mother, well her mother had not been subtle about her hopes.

Which was worse, disappointing the parent who always believed in you or confirming the worst suspicions of the parent who never had?

\----

As soon as they arrived at the station, Hogwarts looming in the distance against a clear nights sky, there was a maddash, and Karolina could hardly keep track of what was happening. 

They were hauling there trunks down the hall, trying not to get there robes caught under any of the wheels, then they were on boats, lit by lantern, (a girl in her boat almost fell into the lake and she swore she saw a tentacle rise and gently rock the boat next to them, like the Giant Squid was playing a little trick of the petrified looking first years). 

At last she was ushered into a room, with the rest of the first years, so they could go into the great hall in one big clump. Before she could be jostled anymore, she held onto Nico’s hand, afraid if she let go, she wouldn’t find her again; Nico didn’t seem to mind, she was small for there age, and it seemed like she kept almost getting trampled.

“Are you nervous?” Karolina asked, right before the double doors would open, and they would see the Great Hall for the first time.

“Nah,” Nico said throwing her a smirk, “It’s only the start of the rest of our lives.”

Karolina squeezed Nico’s hand a little tighter. 

The doors flew wide open and Karolina wasn’t sure what to look at first: the night sky enchantment obscuring the ceiling, the silk banners in deep jewel tones denoting the houses or the cheering students in there school robes.

They were ushered onto benches, set up on the side of the room, and Karolina quietly listened to the Sorting Hat’s song, not letting go of Nico’s hand. As far as she could tell, the song was nothing unusual (not like during the time of Voldemort or other dark wizards); it was just a few simple rhymes about the founders and what each of the houses stood for.

As the hat finished it’s song, she realized that she would be the first of the ‘pride kids’ to be sorted.

There were not many names until her own would be called, and Karolina couldn’t help the dread building in her stomach after a name was read and a house announced: two Andersons, a Bellwheather. 

Would her mother send her a Howler if she wasn’t sorted into Slytherin?

Agatha Christian was sorted in to Ravenclaw. 

What if she was sorted into Slytherin but Nico wasn’t? 

Louis Danes was sorted into Slytherin. 

She knew what was coming next.

“Karolina Dean!”

Karolina let go of Nico’s hand, shot her one last smile (who gave her a smile in return and for a second Karolina was sure everything would be already) and walked up to the stool. The sorting hat was just as he appeared in ‘Hogwarts, A History’, older than time and rather ragged, like it had been patched back together a time or two. 

She sat on the case and waited, sure that the decision would be made in a few seconds, if not instantaneously, like all those before her. 

But a second ticked by, and then another, and the Sorting Hat was as quiet as a mouse.

“Your a tricky case arn’t you.”

Karolina whipped her head, looking for the source of the voice, before she realized it was not just the Sorting Hat, but it’s voice was in her head, and no one else could hear them. She knew the hat would take longer to consider the placement of some witches and wizards, but she had not realized she would be getting a running commentary as it made the decision. 

“You have a bright mind. Creative, your mind doesn’t work the same as most everyone else’s; Ravenclaw could be a good home for you.”

Ravenclaw, she thought of the illustrations in ‘Hogwarts, A History’, the tall tower and the gleaming portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw smiling down at her. 

So many artists who created beautiful art as well as artful magic, powerful witches and wizards who changed the world, but her mother’s voice echoed in the back of her mind:

“It’s just to bad she’s not clever.”

Could she really be a Ravenclaw?

“You are brave, no doubt about it. You are not reckless though, you are careful, still Gryfindor could benefit you.”

Brave? Karolina’s eyebrows scrunched up. She would be called clever before she would be called brave-

“Last but not least Hufflepuff, home of the kind, patient, hardworking, you are all of these things, here more than any other you will find those like you.

Three choices, but which one, my child, which one-”

Karolinas head spun, people were starting to whisper in the Great Hall (she wondered how is was possible for the sounds of whispers to be louder than screams). 

Three choices, which meant…

Not Slytherin. 

How could the sorting hat not even consider her mother’s house? She knew she was not ambitious or cunning, but didn’t the Sorting Hat consider legacy? Wasn’t that why generations after generation would be sorted into the same house?

“What about Slytherin?”

Karolina knew she asked the question, and yet her mouth didn’t move, it was all in her head.

“Your nature excludes you from that house-” 

The sorting hat’s voice, echoing uncomfortably around her head, sounded sharp and final. 

“My nature?” Karolina asked. 

“Your nature, that is to say your family history-”

The voice in her head was raspy, and old, disdain curling around the letters. 

Family history? That didn’t make any sense, her mother-

“But what does that mean?” Karolina pressed further. 

The Sorting Hat did not answer her question, or say anything else for that matter, and instead shouted: “Hufflepuff!”

Karolina walked to the table with cheering, smiling faces. She tried to smile back, but she could hardly think. 

She should be happy, but she just felt confused; she knew that she wasn’t cunning or ambitious like most Slytherin, but what did her family tree have to do with that? Her mother was sorted into that house for goodness sake. 

Then the earlier conversation swam back to her; Halflings weren’t sorted into Slytherin, ever. 

But she would know if she was part troll or vampire? That was the only possible explanation, wasn’t it? Why wouldn’t her family tell her about her history, especially if it bared her from the house her mother wanted her to be sorted into, so badly.

Her mother was a pureblood wizard and her father a muggle born, how on earth was this possible. 

Her head was spinning as she sat down, hands clapping her back, and girls she did not know giving her one armed hugs. 

She sat in a daze, not listening to the names read or houses assigned until-

“Nico Minoru!”

Karolina’s attention shifted and her stomach dropped, as watched Nico walk up to the stool where the sorting hat was waiting. Nico didn’t look in her direction and was instead, was staring at the floor, as if it would swallow her up. 

The sorting hat only sat on Nico’s head for ten or so seconds, before it cried out:

“Ravenclaw!”

They would be separated, there dream of shared dorm room, and late night studying in a shared common room evaporated in seconds, and Karolina had to hold back tears. 

\----

Karolina did her best to focus on the sorting and dinner. She clapped when people were sorted into Hufflepuff, mirroring those around her. She kept her ears open for the rest of the Pride kids, hoping that they were sorted how they hoped they would be. 

It seemed like no one was getting what they wanted. 

Chase was the next one sorted, after Nico. The hat sat on his head for a few seconds, before it shouted:

“Hufflepuff!”

Chase looked as dazed as Karolina felt. 

“It was between Hufflepuff and Gryffendor,” Chase muttered as he sat next to Karolina, “It didn’t even mention Slytherin-”

Chase then clamped his mouth shut, as he shook his head, falling silent for the rest of dinner. 

Gert was the last to be sorted, and one of the quickest as well. The hat was hardly on her head for a second before it shouted:

“Gryffendor!”

And that was that.

Dinner was easier then the sorting, Karolina could go through the motions, mindlessly eating yorkshire pudding and chicken legs. Though Chase was sitting next to her, and they didn’t say anything to one another, and instead stared at the food in front of them, as they got more and more lost in all of noise echoing in the great hall. 

“Are you two okay?” 

“Sorry what?” Karolina looked up and around wildly, realizing the voice came from a pretty girl with red hair, that clashed brilliantly with her yellow school ties, and freckles; she was maybe sixteen or seventeen years old.

“Your Karolina right?” She asked, and then nodded next to her, “And Chase.”

Karolina nodded. 

“I’m Gemma,” She smiled, and Karolina noted the gap between her two front teeth. It could have been awkward looking, but on her it was just endearing, “I am the Head Girl, I just wanted to know if you two are Okay?”

Karolina said ‘yes’ while Chase mumbled ‘fine.’

Gemma smiled at them once more, but didn’t press them further. 

Dinner was over before she knew it (Karolina knew she must have ate something, she put food on her plate, but she didn’t quite remember doing it), and before she knew it, she was following the rest of the yellow clad student’s downstairs. 

As they left the Great Hall, Karolina turned, trying to find Nico in the crowd of black robes and hats, but she didn’t see anything except for a crowd of strangers. 

She had been staring so long that she had to half run to catch up with the pack of first year Hufflepuffs. Gemma, she quickly realized, was giving them a running commentary as they walked, seemingly underground, past stone walls and torches, and the occasional moving painting. She knew she should be paying attention, so she could find the common room again, and that everything Gemma was saying was surely was important information, but she was struggling. 

Everything seemed to be moving too fast and not fast enough, all at the same time. 

“-So just turn right at the framed picture of the fruit, and here we are, just place your hand on this barrel right here, and then the painting. Even if you tell someone or show someone what to do, only members of Hufflepuff house will do it correctly, any would-be intruders will be doused in vinegar instead, which they get very testy about by the way.”

Gemma demonstrated, and before their eyes the barrels and paintings moved of there own accord, opening up an entry way to what must have been the common room. 

Karolina followed the rest inside, and looked around with wide eyes. She was suddenly struck by how warm, and well, homey this all was. There were two fireplaces and overstuffed couches, and armchairs looking onto small writing desks and coffee tables. Vines grew up the walls, a light yellow stone almost the color of sand, and many manner of potted plants lined the bookshelves. Small round windows, like those in old submarines, lined the top of the walls. 

She could picture herself reading here, Lucy curled up on her lap, or playing wizard Chess on a rainy day. She was hit with a sudden pang, realizing she would never get to share those moments here with Nico. 

“Alright, girls will be down this hall,” Gemma was pointing down a narrow hallway to the right, and then another one to the left, “And boys this way.”

Everyone started to make there way down one of the hallways, but Karolina felt like her feet were glued to the floor. Karolina knew she should follow the other girls and unpack and get Lucy settled. She was trying to figure out why she couldn’t move, when she felt a soft warm hand on her shoulder, and she turned to see Gemma looking down at her. 

“Can I talk to you and Chase for a minute,” Gemma looked so kind, and even though the last thing she wanted to do was talk, she didn’t think she could say no to that face. 

“Sure.” Karolina squeaked, she barely stopped herself from asking if they were in trouble. 

“I want you all to know,” Gemma said with a sad smile, “That you are not here because you are not brave or clever or cunning enough to be picked for one of the other houses. You are here for exactly who you are, for your kindness, your work ethic and the strength of your loyalty. Both of you are exceptional.”

Karolina looked over and smiled at Chase, she wished she was Gert in this moment so he would be comfortably if she reached out the squeeze his hand; even so, Chase did look a little less queasy after Gemma’s speech.

“We know,” Karolina said quickly, “Our parents might not agree, though…”

Chase wouldn’t meet her or Gemma’s eye, it looked like he might start crying and Karolina felt even worse then before. 

“I like the common room,” Karolina said softly, “It’s… Warm… Just like Dad described.”

“Your Dad was in Hufflepuff?” Chase asked, looking up with wide eyes. 

“Yah,” Karolina smiled, “He played for the house team, was team captain, too-”

Now that she thought about her Dad, all she could think about is his stories about Hufflepuff; it didn’t seem as scary when she thought about her father sitting in the overstuffed couch in the corner, or playing Quidditch in yellow and black.

She might not have Nico, but she had her father to share this with, in their own way.

“Wait your Dad isn’t-” Gemma started to ask. 

“Frank Dean,” Karolina said, turning in a circle trying to soak in every bit of the common room, “Yah.”

“That’s so cool,” Gemma said, she put on her hands on her hips and looked Karolina up and down like she was surveying a racing horse. Karolina blanched under the scrutiny. “You will have to try out for the team. I am the captain-”

“She’s only a first year,” someone piped up from the corner, a girl with dark hair and a sour expression.

“Yah and her dad’s Frank Dean,” Gemma fired back, still smiling, but her voice sharp, “She’s probably been flying longer than she has been walking.”

“Not quite,” Karolina said, thinking of the picture in her Dad’s wallet, Karolina at three years old, being placed on a toy broom, and zooming around her Grandfathers lawn, “But close.”

“Great!” Gemma said brightly, “And if you don’t make the team, no hard feelings right? You will try out next year.”

Karolina never thought she would even have a chance as a member of the Quidditch team her second year at Hogwarts, let alone her first. 

“Sounds good.” Karolina said, now with a smile that could rival Gemma’s, and to her own surprise, it really did. 

\----

When she walked into her dormitory after talking a bit more with Gemma and Chase (whose mood seemed to improve, at least a little.) She was, luckily, able to find her room rather quickly as her name was written in cursive on the door and her trunk and Lucy on a four poster bed. She met her other four Hufflepuff first year girls: Clara Alvarez, Pria Lamba, Nancy Dao, and Rebecca Fuller. They all greeted her warmly, and they had all got to know each other for an hour or two before they all, one by one, fell asleep, the excitement of the day waring on them. 

Karolina was the last to fall asleep, lying awake, something akin to adrenaline coursing through her veins, but the warmth from the fire, the bright yellow quilt on her bed, and the quiet purring of Lucy curled up by her head overpowered her racing mind, and she fell into a deep dreamless slumber.

Karolina was feeling much more sunny the next morning when she woke up in a warm four poster bed, and sun shining through windows overlooking rolling grass and wildflowers.

She got dressed, quickly, along with her roommates, to rush downstairs for breakfast (she was beginning to think she had not ate much the night before, because she was starving).

This new found sunniness didn’t diminish until, just as she sat down with her roommates and Chase, who had arrived by himself a moment after Karolina had, when a flurry of owls flew through the huge windows on either side of the teachers table. 

Even before the Dean family owl, Cressida, landed on her shoulder, she knew what was coming. 

Karolina doesn’t know why she is surprised, that her mother found out which house she was sorted in so quickly or that she hadn’t sent a Howler. 

Her mother hadn’t written much at all. 

“Karolina,

I have heard that you were sorted into Hufflepuff. I will not feign shock, for you were always your father’s daughter. 

I am sure you will do well in your studies this first year. 

With love,

Your mother”

Though she was disappointed, she couldn’t exactly say she was surprised. 

It still stung though, “you always were your father’s daughter.” 

What did that even mean? Was she no longer her mother’s? Had she ever really been her’s?

It made her feel off balance, and she quietly put down the piece of toast, suddenly not feeling very hungry.

“You didn’t get a Howler,” Karolina said to Chase, when all the owls had made there way out of the great hall once more. “Your dad didn’t write at all. Maybe he’s fine with it.” 

“That’s not his style.” Chase said quietly. “Sending a Howler that is.” 

“What do you mean?”

“He likes to voice his displeasure in private,” Chase’s words were diplomatic, but his expression grim. Between Chase’s ominous word’s and her mother’s own cold dissmisal, Karolina wasn’t sure if she was ever going to eat again.

Karolina pushed her plate forward, her roommates were talking about there first class of the day, Herbology, and she was trying to get excited, but... 

It was hard to think that things would get better. 

“Can we talk?” It was Nico, her hair was down around her shoulders, and a bright blue and bronze scarf around her neck. 

“Of course.” Karolina said, she knew she was grinning to wide, but she couldn’t help it. 

Nico made things better, just by being around her. 

“See you later Chase.”

“Bye,” Chase looked gloomy, and for a second she wondered if she should have invited him along; she quickly dismissed that thought as she saw Gert leave her table and make her way towards Chase.

Karolina and Nico waved at her as they passed.

“When is your first class?” Nico asked.

“Not until 10,” Karolina said, “I have Herbology.” 

“Me too,” Nico smiled at it was dazzling, “Want to walk around the lake?”

Karolina nodded, and without thinking reached out to hold Nico’s hand as they made there way out the double doors. 

It was a perfect not quite summer, not quite fall day and Karolina hardly felt the chill of the breeze as they walked. 

They didn’t walk far, in all honesty and instead they plopped down next to each other, as soon as they reached the lakes bank. It was easy to not talk with the sun in the sky, and wet grass beneath there legs. 

“How is Ravenclaw tower?” Karolina asked, breaking the silence. 

“It’s cool,” Nico said, “Hard to sleep though, it’s like the towers shake with the wind.”

Karolina nodded. 

“How about Hufflepuff?”

“It’s…” Karolina struggled to find her words, “Warm.”

Karolina cringed at her own words.

“Cool,” Nico looked away, running a hand through her hair as she said, “I wish we were in the same house.”

“Me, too,” Karolina whispered.

They sat for what seemed like hours but were only seconds; it was like silence was threatening to eat them whole. 

“We are still best friends,” Nico asked, suddenly, “Right?”

“Try and stop me,” Karolina smiled, trying to smirk. She knew her expression was probably closer to dopey. 

“Even if we are in different houses,” Nico said, starting and stopping like she was trying to find her words, “they are the right houses for us right?”

“Right,” Karolina said, digging her hands into the dirt next to her, the words of the Sorting Hat echoing in her brain.

“Is there something else?” Nico asked, her voice a near whisper. 

“Yah,” Karolina said, “There is. The Sorting Hat… it said something.”

“Yah, you wore the hat longer than almost any one else in our year.” Nico nodded before asking, “What did it say?”

“That my nature wouldn’t allow me to be Slytherin-”

“Well yah,” Nico said carefully, “I could tell you that, you are to sweet.”

“That’s what I thought too, at first, not the sweet thing, but- ” Karolina said, playing with the edge of her bracelet, “But then the hat said it was my family history.”

“That’s weird.” Nico said. 

“I have been thinking about it all day,” Karolina looked at her hands, now caked in dirt, “Since the change to the sorting hat, muggle born students can get into Slytherin, the only thing that excludes them is-”

“Halflings” Nico’s eyebrows furrowed together. 

“Yah,” Karolina nodded “But my mom was in Slytherin, so that leaves-”

“Frank.”

“He’s muggleborn,” Karolina said, “So how is it possible for him to have a Vampire or Giant in the family tree?”

“Well,” Nico could see the cogs turning in Nico’s head, “Maybe someone in his muggle family tree didn’t know they married a vampire or whatever.”

“Maybe.” Karolina was trying to stay positive, but she still wasn’t convinced. 

“ Ask your Dad about it, see what he says.”

“Your right.” Karolina smiled, “You always are.”

“I try.” Nico smiled.

“How did your mom take it?” Karolina asked, “The whole, not Slytherin thing?”

“Like she would,” Nico shrugged, “She didn’t much react at a all.”

“Same,” Karolina looked at Nico, with a small smile, “What did she write?”

“Something about how I was always…” Nico laughed, it echoing into the lake, so hallow, “An original.”

“I’m my father’s daughter,” Karolina said, “Not my mother’s.”

“Well, good. You’re Mom is bloody scary.”

Karolina had to laugh and it was like all the pressure that had been building up bubled up and away. 

“We are finally at Hogwarts,” Karolina sighed, “I know it’s not what you pictured-”

“No,” Nico shook her head, “It’s exactly what I pictured.”

Karolina quirked her head to the side, confused. 

“I pictured being with you.”

\---

The first week of school flew by in a whirlwind. After her conversation with Nico, the first thing she had done was scratch out a quick note to her father, telling him about what the Sorting Hat said to her when it was making it’s decision. She almost forgot about the letter when she started attending classes; it was all so much harder than she was expecting, (who knew transfiguring a needle into a pin would make her want to cry?)

It wasn’t that bad though, in the first week if she wasn’t in class or studying with Chase and her roommates in the common room, she was walking around the grounds or exploring the castle with Nico. They would leave dinner and breakfast early so they would have more time. 

When Karolina had told her about the Quidditch tryouts that weekend, Nico had checked out two school brooms so they could practice. 

“You don’t even like playing Quidditch anymore.” Karolina said, exasperated but touched by the gesture.

“Yah,” Nico said, “But I like you.”

The practice must have payed off, because after the tryouts, she knew she absolutely killed it. She knew, despite the rickety broom, it was some of her best flying she had ever done; she was outflying some of the fifth and six years who were also trying out (much to there obvious displeasure.)

Nico sat and watched her, dutifully in the stadium, and she nearly crash landed as she tried to wave up at her. 

(She knew her victory at tryouts, was, in no small part, because Nico had been in the bleachers cheering). 

“I wanted to tell you in person.” Gemma said broom in hand, as she caught up to Karolina, who was going to return her broom, “You didn’t make the team.”

“Oh.”

“You were great, but we can’t risk having someone so young, and without there own broom. Plus there politics.”

“Right.” Karolina said, even though she had no idea what ‘politics’ could entail. 

“But next year-”

“There isn’t any Chasers graduating next year,” Karolina said, not even pretending she had not done reconnaissance of the teams’s roster, “So there is no spot for me-”

“But there will be a sport for you though,” Gemma was grinning from ear to ear, “Me.”

“You.” Karolina said slowly, still not understanding exactly what was happening, “Your a Seeker.”

“I know that Kar,” Karolina felt her ears grow red from the use of her nickname. 

“But, my dad-”

“Your dad is your dad.” Gemma said gently, “And he was a really good Chaser, but you, you could be a great Seeker.”

“I could?”

“You are tall for your age,” Gemma said seriously, “But your graceful, quick thinking and fast, even on those monstrosity masqurading as brooms.”

“I am.” Karolina felt her cheeks burn red, right along with her ears. 

“You really are a Hufflepuff arnt' you,” Gemma rolled her eyes, “Accept your greatness kid, if you practice and work hard, theres no stopping you.”

\----

Karolina had agreed to meet Nico in the library in a half an hour after tryouts to study for the potions quiz next week, but really to go over the tryout moment by moment. 

When she got back to her dormitory, to change, there was a letter from her father, neatly placed on her bed (Lucy was sitting half on top of it though, and was not happy to be moved- Karolina was guessing she was going to be iced out for at least the next few hours). Usually Karolina would care, but now she just wanted to read what her father had wrote her, as she teared open the envelope. 

“My dearest Karolina, 

Family legend was that my great, great grandfather was a vampire. It must be true! Don’t fret, there are no other skeletons in the family tree that should concern you. 

We shall speak, no more about it! When I see you, we must discuss your time in my alma mater; me and your mother miss you dearly, and feel free to write whenever you please!

Love, 

Your Father. 

 

Karolina read through the note twice. It was rather odd, language almost a caricature of how flowery her fathers could get when he wrote letters. It was his handwriting though, and his explanation made sense she guessed. Karolina wandered to the library to meet Nico, still rereading the letter (and nearly colliding with a group of annoyed fifth years in the process). 

When she got to the library, Nico was already there surrounded by piles of books that dwarfed her tiny frame (Gert had started calling her fun sized, which Karolina secretly thought was funny and Nico did not enjoy at all). 

When Nico saw her walking towards her, she waved. 

“Two things,” Karolina said instead of a greeting, “I didn’t make the team, but I did get a letter from my father.”

Karolina handed over the letter her father had written, and told Nico about her conversation with Gemma. She talked and talked and talked, and Karolina quickly realized she hadn’t let Nico say anything in nearly a half hour. 

“I’m sorry,” Karolina muttered, running her hand through her hair. 

“Don’t apologize,” Nico said, “That is a lot of weird and sucky to happen all at once. I’m sorry.”

“Me too.” Karolina swallowed, “My dad’s lying. But why?”

“I don’t know.” Nico said, they sat in silence for a moment, as students passed, gossiping in groups or half running to reach there friends. 

“Guess what though,” Nico had her head propped up on her hands.

“What?”

“We can finally go to a game together” Nico said, “You and me.”

\---

School didn’t get much easier but it didn’t get much harder either. The coursework got more difficult, but as it turned out, Pride kids stuck together. While Amy and Nico helped them in potions, and Gert helped with Astronomy, Karolina was able to pitch in with Magical History and Herbology (the later was quickly becoming her favorite subject, she did not care if it was a cliche). Alex excelled at Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Amy was near prodigious in Transfiguration, while Chase had an affinity for Charms. 

They sometimes stayed in the library, the six of them, until they were shoed out, almost missing curfew as they raced back to there respective common rooms. 

Karolina was beginning to think there was something wrong with her, it was like her magical ability was muted, like she was trapped; the power was there, but she couldn’t access it. 

“You will just practice more,” Nico told her, when she shared her concerns, “I can help you.”

And she did, and it got easier. Kind of. 

Something was wrong, her father’s odd letter, the Sorting Hat’s words, and the fact her mother suddenly started sending her near daily letters made her feel like she was not standing on solid ground. 

She ignored it though, and instead focused on studying (magic was way more fun then anything she had worked on with a tutor) and flying when the pitch was empty, diving and an old ball they had swiped from Charms, used to practice levitating. It wasn’t ideal, but at least it was similar heights and shapes. 

One day in October, Nico met her in the pitch and she was blushing, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. 

“I got you something for our birthday.” Our birthday, technically Karolina's birthday was on the 17th, and Nico's was on the 18th, but they begun calling those few days 'our birthday' years ago. 

“Me too!” Karolina said, “But it’s in my trunk.”

“You can give it to me later,” Nico dismissed waving her hand, “Just open this now, please.”

Needing no more convincing, Karolina ripped open the wrapping paper. 

“Is this a-”

“It’s a practice snitch,” Nico said with a smile, “It will come back if you press this on the box, see right here?”

“Yah.”

“I figured, if you couldn’t practice with a good broom, you could at least practice with a good snitch.”

“You are the best.” And she was, Nico always was. 

Using the practice snitch was a big help. Karolina knew she was getting better, bit by bit, little by little (maybe this is why Karolina was in Hufflepuff, she liked working hard, and working hard towards a goal that mattered). 

Gemma came out to watch them practice every few weeks, to refine her technique and give her tips. 

“The next generation,” Gemma said shaking her head and smiling, after Karolina managed to make a difficult catch, “freaking genius.” 

Karolina had felt like she had blushed from her ears down to her toes. 

The first game of the season was Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw. It should have made it tense, watching it with Nico, but it just made it more fun. They teased and jeered, and Karolina laughed and laughed, so much it felt like she would never stop. 

Soon Autumn became Winter, and Karolina was awed to find Hogwarts in the snow was even more beautiful then it was surrounded by the red and oranges leaves. It almost physically hurt to leave it, even if she was going home for Christmas. 

Her mother actually hugged her on the platform (Karolina was shocked she even came to pick her up), and her parents surprised her with a trip to Paris for Christmas. She ate croissants, and watched her parents dance by the Seinne, all while wondering what on earth it was they were hiding. 

When she arrived back in Hogwarts she nearly shrieked when she saw Nico, picking her up in a bear hug, spinning her round and round. 

“I am not a puppy.” Nico groused. 

“Who said you were?” Karolina said, still holding Nico a few inches above the ground. 

The next few months fell into a comfortable sort of rhythm, school, studying, the Pride Kids, Nico, and Quidditch. 

It all moved so fast, months changing almost as fast as seasons, and the idea of a summer break seemed duanting, much more so than anything inside an exam or a classroom. They were studying for quizzes and then tests and then final exams (In the last three weeks of term, Karolina was so busy, she only practice on the Quidditch pitch twice). 

Before Karolina knew it, she was trying to catch Lucy and put her in her carrier, because the Hogwarts express was leaving in an hour, taking them all home for the summer. 

(She wasn’t sure who was going to miss Hogwarts more, her or Lucy. 

It was Karolina, Karolina was going to miss it more). 

The Pride Kids, got a compartment together, once again, and the mood was more subdued. Gert was the only one who seemed excited to go home. 

“I miss Molly so much,” Gert said, shaking her head, “It’s so weird, It’s like it physically hurts to be away from her for so long. 

“Yah,” Karolina said, looking at Nico, who was staring blankly out the window. 

When the Hogwarts Express pulled up to the station, everything happened to quick, she was getting her trunk in order, and checking on Lucy, and everyone was trying to find there parents-

Suddenly it was time to say goodbye.

Karolina hugged Nico, her arms tight around her, and she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to let go. 

“I am going to miss you so much.” Karolina hated that tears sprung in her eyes, but she just wanted to stay with Nico 

“I will see you at Pride-”

“That’s months away-”

“And then it will be are second year.”

“Yah.” Karolina nodded. “Write to me, please.”

“Only all the time.”

Nico was soon whisked away from Karolina, her parents on either side, and Amy nearby. Karolina waved, as she stood alone waiting for her own parents, struck by the bittersweet notion that her home was not in London or even Hogwarts, it was wherever Nico was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! I hope you all enjoyed this so far :)
> 
> I am going to write/post these as fast as I can, but it will be a little slower than my last long work 'i need my girl', because each chapter are going to be like mini Harry Potter books, covering one year at Hogwarts (POV alternating between Nico and Karolina) + an epilogue. The chapters, excluding the first and last, will all be 7,000 words+, which will be a fun challenge for me (I already know that chapters after year 3 will probably be 15,000+). I will probably post once a week, more if I have time, less if the chapter is particularly long or I am busy/traveling!
> 
> (2nd year will probably be up in the next two weeks, fyi) 
> 
> Also, the rating will go up to at least Teen as the kids get older, but I will be sure to change the rating on the story overall, and also put a note at the beginning of the chapter. 
> 
> Should be fun though, so please kudos/subscribe/bookmark/comment to let me know if you are enjoying what I am doing so far, and to let me know your own Hogwarts/Runaways head cannons (I love incorporating ideas from my comments into my later chapters :) )


	3. (year 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico learns to share Karolina with the rest of the world, but only after almost ruining everything
> 
> Rated T 
> 
> (because swearing and crushes, it's pretty much G)

Nico was in a terrible, simply awful mood, and there was not a single thing in the world that could put an end to it. It’s been a month since she arrived at Hogwarts for her second year, and it was like the universe was conspiring to make this day, truly, terrible. 

First she woke up to a gust of icy air, because one of her roommates didn’t properly close the window the night before. Then an over excited first year Ravenclaw accidently spilled orange juice down Nico’s front and on the way to Herbology, she tripped and ended up soaking wet, as well as cold. She had to run to her dorm in between classes to change (after sitting through Herbology sticky, cold and wet, and Ravenclaw wasn’t even with Hufflepuff this year, so she could commiserate with Karolina, but Slytherin). She was late for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and the professor docked 10 points from Ravenclaw. 

Maybe the worst part of it all, though, if any of this would have happened last year, Karolina would have been the first one to hear about it. They would have taken a long walk around the lake, or curled up by a fire in the library, and Nico would rant and rave until she felt better. 

But she couldn’t do that today, she knew for a fact, that Karolina had four hours of Quidditch practice today, and would be up in the library doing homework at lunch, to busy to talk about something as silly as a truly rotten day. 

Nico moved her food around her plate, not feeling very hungry, as she snuck peeks at the Hufflepuff table. Even though dinner had started nearly a half hour ago, Karolina still wasn’t there, probably still on the Quidditch pitch or getting changed for dinner.

It would be there birthday in a few weeks, and she wasn’t sure if Karolina would even be able to spend an hour with her alone, until then. Even on there birthday, would Karolina be too busy? She wanted to ask, but she didn’t want to sound desperate (even though she felt like it).

She hated that she wanted to monopolize Karolina’s time but, wasn’t that what best friends were for? They had been so close for so long. They send thousands of letters before they arrived at Hogwarts, spent every possible hour together during their first year, even the summer between first and second year, they sent four letters a week.

It really wasn’t until Karolina made the house team, that Nico realized that she was going to have to share Karolina with the rest of the world. 

Nico had been so excited for her friend, and she still was, but she hadn’t realized what it would mean for Karolina to be the youngest seeker on a Hogwarts team in fifteen years (and youngest player on a house team in ten). 

The Daily Prophet sent a photographer to do a puff piece a few days after tryouts, and Karolina even started to get fan mail. Nico got why, it was quite a story. Daughter of famed Quidditch Star, seeker of the same house team he captained nearly twenty years before. Plus Karolina so looked the part, she had gotten even taller over the summer, and her hair longer. She had spent part of August, with her father, who was doing a work trip to work with Quidditch teams in Greece, so Karolina returned for her second year even tanner and hair even blonder then it had been before. 

People had always noticed Karolina, but now, well, it was getting kind of ridiculous. A Ravenclaw third year named Geoffrey, asked Nico to put in a good word for him (which she absolutely did not do) and a Slytherin first year actually ran into a wall when he was walking and staring as Karolina passed (if Nico reached out and squeezed Karolina’s hand a little more positively than usual, that wasn’t anyone’s business). Alex had seen the later happen and he hand’t stopped laughing for twenty minutes, and Karolina was very, very confused. 

Karolina seemed either oblivious or uncomfortable with the all the attention, and Nico knew that it was really the last thing she wanted. Kar had always been uncomfortable with her father’s celebrity status, and had never wanted to experience it for herself. She had rolled her eyes at the Daily Prophet article (which included a close up, with Karolina’s wide tooth smile that could have been used to sell toothpaste). She looked downright miserable whenever anyone brought it up, and she blushed beet red and even the most well meaning compliments or teasing. 

It wasn’t just that Karolina did not want all of the attention, Nico knew, but because of how Gert had reacted to it all. Well, how Gert and Chase reacted. 

Gert was as happy as anyone about Karolina’s success, at first, but then Chase started spending a lot less time studying with Gert, and a lot more time following Karolina around looking vaguely dazed. Karolina didn’t seem to really notice, and when Nico had asked her why Chase seemed to follow her everywhere, she shrugged and said, they were just good friends because they were in the same house.

Within a few weeks of the article being published, Gert wasn’t talking to either Chase or Karolina. Nico finally broke down and told Karolina why Gert was so mad, Karolina had been confused, but had immediately gone to apologize (even though she didn’t do anything wrong, Nico, noted, just to herself). 

It didn’t work very well though. 

“I have tried talking to Gert,” Karolina had told her, wide eyed and confused, “But before I can really say anything, she just walks away.”

“It will get better,” Nico promised, though she was not sure if she believed her own words. 

Nico just wished Gert knew that Karolina resented being pretty more than it was possible for Gert to resent it. Her entire life, that was the thing the world cared about. No one noted that Karolina knew more about magical history then anyone in there year (or the next two years), or her affinity for Herbology, or her kindness, or humor. Even that Daily Prophet article talked more about Karolina sharing her father’s good looks, than anything about her skill on a broom. Everyone just said Karolina was pretty, to the point where her own mother had written her off as a failure. 

Nico may have decided, at the age of eight, that being pretty didn’t matter, but the rest of the world did not have to agree with her. 

Nico supposed though, Karolina would never no what it was like to be the one that wasn’t noticed, the one that was worshipped from a far (and sometimes uncomfortably close). Gert was very pretty, and if Chase didn’t see that he was an idiot (even if he didn’t think she was pretty, he was an idiot for throwing away there friendship, either was he was an idiot). Gert was like Nico, though, pretty but with a razors edge, one that made people look away and not too close; she figured they both would grow into it, and find people who they were meant to be with them wouldn’t mind (when they were older of course). For this reason, plus the fact it really wasn’t any of her business, Nico didn’t press the matter, figuring that Gert would either get over it, or she wouldn’t, and there was not much she could do about it. 

Karolina still wasn't back for dinner. Nico decided to send a letter to her father, she had been meaning to post, before she met her to study for there upcoming potions exam in the library. She trudged up to the Owlery (there were simply too many stairs). To her surprise she saw her sister tying a letter to a Hogwarts owl, even as her own, El, pouted in the corner. 

“Amy what are you doing?” 

“It’s nothing.” Amy said airly, and very unconvincingly, as the owl flew away towards the open window. 

“Oh,” Nico looked at El and then back to Amy again, trying to work out what was going on, “I just thought you might be sending a letter home-”

“Yes, that’s what I was doing.” Amy nodded.

“Okay.” Nico “Why are you acting so weird? And why aren't you using El”

“I’m not,” Amy suddenly got angry “And none of your business! Why do you have to be so goddamn lonely”

“Why do you have to be such a jerk?” Amy always did this, if Nico asked anything too personal, suddenly she was completely shut out. 

The summer before her second year, Amy, usually her parents pride and joy started to rebel, hard core. Nico had always been the one to push everyone’s buttons. She was the one who asked why the house elves weren’t paid and why didn’t Healers go into muggle hospitals and secretly save muggle’s dying of diseases they knew how to fix. 

She was a pain in the ass, and she was comfortable with it. Amy was the one who was going to be a prefect in her parent’s old house, probably head girl, when it came to that. This summer though, she started talking back, sulking and refusing to talk to everyone. 

Secretive, her sister became secretive, which would have been fine with Nico, but she was being shut out too. 

It wasn’t all bad though, Nico started to feel close to her mother for the first time ever, as they discussed transfiguration and charms and potions and Mom had showed her old textbooks from Hogwarts and her Healer program. 

She missed her sister though, she wanted her sister to trust her with this secret.

“Wow,” Amy rolled her eyes, “Good one.”

“You always do this,” Nico shouted, “You shut everyone out.”

“Whatever.” Amy said dismissively, “Just because Karolina is getting sick of you following her around like a puppy, doesn’t mean you get to do the same to me.”

Nico felt tears well up in her eyes and Amy went as white as a sheet.

“Shit Nico,” Amy raised her hands up and stepped forward, “I didn’t mean-”

Nico turned on her heel and fled, tears streaming down her face, as she felt stupid and hurt, but mostly just angry. 

She wasn’t a puppy. She was her own freaking person. She could do whatever the hell she wants.

Even though she and Karolina had planned to meet up after her practice in the library, Nico went straight to the Ravenclaw common room (after answering the question “which came first the color orange, or the fruit” with, “It doesn’t matter”, which for some reason worked.) It was only seven by the time she climbed the tower to her room, but she changed into her PJs quickly and covered herself with her blankets, ready for this, truly terrible day to be over. 

\---------------------------

Nico was still fuming the next day at breakfast. 

“Hey Nico.” It was Karolina, looking bright and sunny and perfect, and it really annoyed Nico. 

“Karolina,” Her voice was curt. 

Karolina looked hurt. 

She knew she was being petty, but she just couldn’t deal with Karolina, right now. 

“I just wanted to see if everything was okay, you missed our study date-”

“What, you can’t even get through one nights worth of potions homework without my help.”

“No,” Karolina looked down at her feet, “I just wanted to make sure-”

“Things are not okay.”

“I’m sorry,” Karolina said, her voice small, “What did I do?”

“Nothing,” Nico said, “That’s the problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am always moving things for you,” Nico said, her eyes narrowing, “But you are still too busy. It’s always all about you. Gert is right, all of this celebrity went straight to your head.”

Karolina looked like she had been slapped.

“First Gert,” Karolina looked near tears, “Now you, I don’t know what I keep doing wrong.”

“Karolina, I didn’t mean-”

“It’s fine,” Karolina started backing away, “I have been busy and I probably should have. It’s my fault, I-”

Than Karolina fled and Nico felt about a thousand times worse than before. 

\---------------------------

Nico kept to herself after that. She avoided all the Pride Kids, not just Amy and Karolina. She knew she was cutting off her nose to spite her face (which, by the way, is a disgusting expression), but…

At first Karolina tried to talk to her, but Nico avoided her, and then, after a few days, Karolina stopped trying. 

Amy hadn’t tried at all. 

So a week after the truly awful day (and the day after not great morning), Nico found herself curled up by a fire in the library brooding. 

“Hey,” it was Amy, and Nico didn’t have the heart to ignore her.

“Hey.”

“I’m sorry what I said.” Amy really did look sorry, which surprised Nico a little. 

“It’s okay.”

“No,” Amy shook her head, “It’s not. You are not a puppy, and I knew you were feeling sensitive about all this attention Karolina was getting-”

“Was not.” Nico mumbled.

“Okay,” Nico knew Amy was suppressing a smile. “Still, I was being a jerk, I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“Pardon.”

“Why were you being a jerk?” Amy looked like a deer in the headlights, “I mean what was with the letter?”

“Oh,” Amy shrugged looking embarrassed, “That, I thought… Well I thought something was happening. Something weird and bad. That’s why I wrote the letter… Anyway, I was wrong, so it’s silly even talking about.”

“Okay.” Nico nodded, more confused than ever. 

“Anyway,” Amy shook her head like she was trying to shake away bad thoughts, “I got you something-”

She reached into her book bag and pulled out a bag of candy the size of pillow case.

“Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans,” Amy started listing, “Sugar Quills, Pumpkin Pasties, a lot of fudge, and more, I can’t remember anymore.”

“You didn’t need to get me all of this-”

“Think of it is a birthday present,” Amy said, “And an I’m sorry present. Share some with Karolina, too, okay?”

Nico avoided her gaze.

“Come on,” Amy shook her head, “I have seen Karolina moping around, too. It’s like her sparkle has dimmed ever since you two started fighting. Go apologize.”

“Yah.” Nico said, her heart aching, “You’re right.”

“I always am.”

Nico glared. 

“I mean usually,” Amy laughed, before heading out of the library, pausing to ruffle Nico’s hair. 

\------------------------------

It took a day and a half after talking with Amy to be able to talk to Karolina for a minute, alone. She ended up waiting by the Hufflepuff locker rooms for twenty minutes, to catch her. 

“Hey.” Nico said, as Karolina walked out of the locker room. Karolina paused; she was back in her school uniform, book bag in hand, she waved at her teammates as they passed, but she still hadn’t said anything to Nico. 

“Hey.” Her voice was small and hurt and Nico felt like the worst person in the world for making her feel that way. 

“I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Karolina said, looking so relieved. 

“No,” Nico found herself echoing her sisters earlier words, “It’s not.”

“Well then,” Karolina smiled a small smile, “I accept your apology then.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

Nico suddenly had an armful of Karolina, as she later threw them into a hug (not that she minded, it was the opposite of minding). 

“I am glad we made up, before your birthday,” Karolina mumbled into her hair. 

“Our birthday.”

“Our birthday.”

“I got you something.” Karolina said with a wide smile, like she had been waiting to say something for weeks, (which knowing Kar, she probably had). 

“Me too.”

“And it falls on a Saturday and Sunday this year,” Karolina smiled, “How lucky are we?”

“Pretty lucky.” Nico smiled, though she thought she was probably the luckiest of the pair. 

They quickly decided to spend her birthday just the two of them, (except for a few hours on Saturday when Karolina had Quidditch practice). They quickly ate breakfast at there own tables, and then they met up to race there bikes around the empty Quidditch pitch, taking long walks along the lake, and playing many a game of wizard chess. They also were forced to study, but only a little. The rest could be made up later, they reasoned, after all, you only turn thirteen once. 

“Open my present first,” Nico said with a smile. 

“History of Merepeoples: Grecian Sirens to North American Varieties” Karolina read with a grin. “I love it.”

Karolina placed the book next to her. 

“Your turn.” 

Nico opened her present, it was small and black plastic, like the muggle gadgets Amy and Alex liked to take apart. She had no idea what it was, though. 

“Is this a…” Nico prompted. 

“It’s like the muggle camera, Pol-a-rod.” Karolina said excitedly, sounding out the unfamiliar word, “But it uses magical film. The film develops in a minute, but the photos move, like all magic cameras-”

“I want to try.” Nico said, suddenly excited; Karolina showed her how to put the film in, and then the two of them leaned in, and Nico took the picture. It wasn’t like either of them knew how it was going to turn out, so they sat with bated breath, as it developed. 

As soon as they saw it they started giggling; small picture definitely was of the two of them, but they had their heads turned towards each other, and the photo was just a three second loop of them arguing how to use the camera, faces screwed up in confusion and annoyance. 

“It’s a good picture of you.” Nico said seriously, and then started laughing. 

“Is it?” Karolina shook her head, “Maybe the Daily Prophet should have used that instead.”

“Yah,” Nico said, laughing, it is, “I am keeping it too.”

“It’s your birthday, I suppose,” Karolina said with fake exasperation, “I guess I can let you have it.”

“Yah,” Nico said, having to suppress an uncharacteristic giggle, “It’s yours too.”

\-------------

Karolina's first game was a massive success. 

Karolina caught the snitch within the first ten minutes of the, securing a victory for Hufflepuff, even if, it turned out to be a rather boring game.

“Best game ever.”

“It was not,” Karolina rolled her eyes.

“Was, too.” Nico said, tugging Karolina’s Quidditch robes back in place. 

“Your just saying that because you are my best friend.”

Karolina didn’t seem to be to concerned though. 

Karolina was soon whisked away for a victory party in the Hufflepuff common room, and Nico couldn’t even be put out, because she seemed so happy.

Nico found Gert sulking in the Great Hall.

“You didn’t come to the match?” Nico asked. 

“Why should I have?” Gert mumbled, “Princess Karolina had more than her share of admirers.”

“Seriously Gert.”

“What?” Gert shrugged, “You were icing her our a few weeks ago, don’t go sitting on a high horse-”

“We made up after like a week,” Nico said, eight days and about four hours, not that Gert needed to know that, “You have been horrible to her this entire year.”

“So.” Gert said, crossing her arms.

“Look Gert,” Nico whispered, “If you don’t screw your head on straight about Karolina I am going to hex you.”

“No you’re not.”

“No,” Nico conceded. “But I am not gonna let you treat Karolina like dirt anymore. You and I both know she is too sweet to call you out-”

“So her big protector is going to-”

“Yah,” Nico stepped closer, “I am.”

Gert looked close to tears.

“I just want Chase back,” Gert sighed, “I don’t have Molly, and I don’t have my friend, I just… This year is really hard.”

“I know,” Nico nodded, “It’s not Karolina’s fault though.”

“I know,” Gert her sigh uneven, “I know.”

“Look, ”Nico said slowly, “Karolina has been told she’s pretty her whole life-”

“What a tragedy.”

“Let me finish,” Nico rolled her eyes, “To the point where her mother has decided she is never going to be much of a witch-”

“Really,” Gert said her eyes wide.

“Yes really,” Nico was starting to get really annoyed. “Not everyone has the Yorkes Parent Cheering squad you do.”

Gert looked like she didn’t know what to say.

“Just try,” Nico asked, “Please.”

\-------------------

After Gert and Nico’s chat, Gert started being a whole lot more civil, if not outright warm towards Karolina (who reacted with confusion, that was quickly replaced with gratitude). Nico had also had a few choice words with Chase, that resulted in him spending less time following Karolina around, and more time with Gert, who all and all looked much happier then she had been. Within the month Gert went from civil to friendly, and Karolina and Gert started there weekly study sessions, focusing on Runes (they both decided to take it next year, much to Nico’s confusion as to why).

Despite Karolina’s schedule and newfound celebrity, the Pride Kids, as well as Nico and Karolina found a new normal. They all studied together, at least once a week and Nico started going to some of Karolina’s practices again, so they could walk back to the castle together, though, more often than not, they would make themselves even later to dinner by taking the long route around the greenhouse, or looping by the lake. 

Karolina was still practicing all the time with her house team, but the celebrity from the article seemed to have died down, she had not gotten a fan letter in weeks much to her relief.

The amount of attention from boys in there year, and even the year above and below them, however, did not change, if anything, it got worse. Karolina had already turned down four boys since the start of the year, if Nico’s count was correct.

“He was not asking me out,” Karolina said, brow furrowed, when Nico brought up the latest admirer, “Jimmy, while very sweet wanted to sit with me for the Slytherin/Gryffindor game, but I always watch the games I am not playing in, with you. I thought everyone knew that honestly..”

Karolina returned to her history essay, while Nico shook her head in disbelief. She didn’t press the matter further, and was thankful that Gert was nowhere near them, and was, at that moment, in the astronomy tower checking constellations instead.

Christmas came and went, with little fanfare, and as she pulled at her dress robes for the family dinner, she decided she would just stay at Hogwarts (if Karolina stayed as well that is). 

Karolina continued to play well, and though she still struggled with Charms, Potions and Transfiguration, she managed to keep her head above water. While Karolina struggled, Nico exceled, to the point where professors were giving her more and more advanced things to try (she was up to fourth year spells, in Charms).

Alex and Amy brought back there spoils from Hogsmeade trip in February, which Nico desperately wanted to visit next year, and in March, Karolina’s nearly fell off her broom catching a snitch that put Hufflepuff in the finals for the Quidditch Cup. 

“You have to be more careful,” Nico chided, after she had congratulated her of course.

“I am careful enough,” Karolina grinned, before she was swept away, this time on top of her teammates shoulders, away to the victory party. 

Gryffindor beat Hufflepuff in the last round of the house tournament, meaning Hufflepuff placed second, Ravenclaw third, and Slytherin fourth. Everyone took their finals, and Slytherin won the house cup, which no one was surprised by, and all in all, the year ended on a rather anticlimactic note. 

The last day of term, the day after everyone's exams were turned in, and trunks were nearly all packed (Chase was notorious procrastinator, usually didn’t start packing until the morning they went home on the Hogwarts Express). 

The six of them spent there last day on the sunny fields overlooking the lake. Chase and Alex swim (Nico has heard to much about the history of the lake from Karolina, Merpeople to Grindylows to the Giant Squid, she was more than happy to sit on the banks and read a good book). 

Karolina didn’t swim either, instead she brought her broom down with her, and after lapping the lake, at breakneck speeds, she plopped down next to Nico, throwing her arm over her shoulder.

The two of them had whispered and giggled at Alex and Chase trying to dunk each other, and pushed the other further into the lake, while Gert, thumbed through a book on Astronomy (a recent birthday present from Chase.) Amy had stolen her camera an hour of so before, and was snapping photos, leaving them to develop beside Karolina (though she tucked some into her pocket, Nico noticed).

Despite the longer days that June brought, it got dark much too quickly for anyone's taste, and they all trudged inside, slightly burnt, bone tired, and absolutely and completely happy. 

The Hogwarts express on the way home was a subdued ride, and Karolina was beginning to think that the trip away from Hogwarts always would be. 

They played on a travel board of Wizard’s Chess, and Amy beat them all at a muggle game called Poker (which Nico still didn’t understand the rules of, and she had a suspicion that no one besides Amy did either). They ate too many Pumpkin Pasties, and much too quickly, for anyone's taste, they pulled up to the the station at Kings Cross. 

The six of them started to gather there thing mournfully, without saying much to each other. 

Before they could hug goodbye, in front of her friends and families, and promise to write over the summer, Karolina pulled Nico aside.

“I wanted to give you something, not in front of the others.”

“Kar, you didn’t have to give me anything-”

It was a picture of the two of them, from the day before. There last day at Hogwarts until the next Fall. 

Karolina and Nico, legs stretched out, half on the sand, half on the grass, Karolina’s arm thrown over Nico’s shoulder, they are talking, Nico whispering something in Karolina’s ear, and Karolina is laughing hysterically. It was magical, so they were moving, looping of about three seconds on a little square, the colors more faded then they were in her memory. There was a white border, thicker at the bottom, where there was written, in Karolina’s careful handwriting “Nico and Karolina, 2nd Year, Hogwarts”. 

“Amy took the picture,” Karolina said, “With your camera, the one I gave you for our birthday. She gave it to me. She took two, so I have this one, and I want you to have this one.”

The two photos were near identical, they must have been taken only seconds apart, with the same careful caption written by Karolina. 

“I just thought-” Karolina looked nervous, and Nico threw her arms over her shoulders, nearly taking her with a hug. 

“I love it,” Nico whispered, hugging Karolina even closer, “Thank you.”

Nico really didn’t know how she was going to go an entire three months without seeing this girl. She wasn’t sure how she went more than a few hours without seeing Karolina.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I finished this way faster then I thought I would!
> 
> Good news, this chapter is out ten days early!
> 
> Bad news, it's like 3,000 words less then I thought it would be. 
> 
> Oh, well!
> 
> Any who, next chapter teaser: a seer, Molly's sorting, a wizard named Jonah, Hogsmead drama (whose taking who y'all)


	4. (year 3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flying, a man named Jonah and first kisses. Third year is shaping up to be more than Karolina could have possibly expected.

Karolina loved flying more than (almost) anything else in the entire world. When she was flying she didn’t have to think about anything except ‘where’s the snitch’ or ‘how fast do I have to go to fly to the end of the lake and back’. 

She didn’t want to think right now; thinking was the absolute last thing she wanted to do. 

She was flying over the yellow grass and wild lavender, the overgrown fields that used to be her grandfather’s, his crumbling Victorian manor in the background. Her Grandfather had died when she was a baby, and the manor, with its crumbling estate, was left to her mother. The land was unplottable, hidden in the south of the UK, with rolling fields and wildflowers, a small lake (a pond really), and an acre or so of trees that it would be too generous to call a forest. Karolina had already looped around the property three times.

Karolina wasn’t sure how long whe had been flying for.

Karolina used to love coming here, muggle Brighton in the distance and the smell of salt and sand. She realized, now, that she loved coming here because it meant spending time with her Dad; they would escape the blistering streets of London that made her overworked mother even more likely to snap at everyone and anyone (but especially her daughter), to the seaside. Together she and her father would walk through the winding paths on the outskirts of the manner, birdwatch, take trips to the coast to go clamming and play in the ruff surf, Karolina shrieking as she ran into the waves. In the morning her father would make banana pancakes (one of only three things he could actually cook) and she would drink orange juice, and he would drink coffee. Sometimes they would sit, side by side and read muggle books. Her father had an affection them, left over from his childhood (both his muggle born parents had died when he was at Hogwarts, and Karolina knew he still missed them terribly). Karolina loved the books her father showed her, and also had her own collection of muggle mysteries that Nico had sent her (Sherlock Holmes to Nancy Drew and back again). 

It had seemed like heaven; with a sharp pang, she missed her father more than ever. 

Her mother had told her last week that they would spend the long weekend before Karolina returned to school at the old manor house. Her father was on a work trip to Peru, and it would be just the two of them. Karolina had hoped, despite her better judgment, that this could be a turning point for the two of them. That they would drink lemonade and wander the property and her mother would tell her about her grandparents. 

Karolina, instead, had her hopes dashed at nearly every turn; her mother had spent most of the trip chastising her final exam grades (which included perfect scores in Herbology and History of Magic, and her Astronomy scores were second to only Gert in their year, not that she noticed). If Karolina was not sitting through an onslaught of critique, her mother ‘slipping out’ to finish something at work, leaving the house for hours at a time. She didn’t mind the later; she had never minded that her mother was busy with work, but the constant badgering about her grades, coupled with loneliness were beginning to weigh on Karolina. 

Today Karolina had hardly descended the stairs before her mother started in on her, this time about her choice of Runes and Care of Magical Creatures as the courses she would take in her third year, (don’t you think Arithmancy is a more serious? At least you are taking Runes and are not completely foolish-)

Karolina didn’t know what got into her, but instead of listening to the litany of abuse, she just left. She never just left. She always just listened, that’s what good daughters did. 

Maybe she was tired of being a good daughter.

She walked out the door, not even hearing her mother’s words, even as her voice got louder and louder behind her, she grabbed her Nimbus lying on the porch and she took off.

She started flying, and that had been, at least, five hours ago.

Her dress (really a shapeless black cotton sack that looked like a t-shirt, but one that went down past her knees), was sticking to her back like a second skin, with sweat, and the skin on the back of her neck and arms and legs were starting to feel overly warm, and she was almost certain she was going to be sunburnt tomorrow. Her canvas trainers, were so scuffed up the white rubber was almost completely black, and one of her socks was pushed down, so she could scratch at one of the mosquito bites currently littering her body, this one on her ankle. Her hair, she knew, must be tangled, with bit of grass and branches from her near fall in the neighboring properties trees a few hours ago. 

She must have looked deranged. 

Karolina didn’t really care, though. The odder she looked, the more it would annoy her mother, which was exactly what she wanted right now. She was starting to get tired, and thirsty (and a trip to the bathroom was needed in the not too distant future), with a sigh, Karolina started making her was back to the manor house. 

She was going to have to deal with her mother, sooner or later, after all. 

As she landed in the front yard, quietly putting her broom away, hoping to sneak up stairs without seeing her mother (she was hoping that she would deal with her mother later, rather than sooner). She could imagine the new details added to the tirade, about how she spent too much time on her broom and how she had better start taking care of herself, because there was only so much ‘pretty’ could do (her mom really needed to choose, either she was too pretty or not pretty enough). 

When she stepped through the threshold she didn’t hear silence, or the creaks of an old house. She didn’t even here her mother dictating to her quill, as she often did, as she wrote a letter to the Minister of Magic or Magical Ambassador to France. She instead heard the sound of her mother arguing, loudly, at someone. She couldn’t make out the words, just the rise and fall of voices, one was her mother but the other was deeper, and one she didn’t recognize. 

She should have just minded her own business, maybe she should have flown up to her room, and climbed in the window, and avoided the argument all together, but she didn’t. She walked straight towards it, like a moth to a flame. 

“Mom-” Karolina called as she entered the parlor. Her mom was arguing with a man Karolina had never seen before, at first she could only see the back of his head (he was tall, really tall- even taller than her father). When her mother saw Karolina, disheveled and unpresentable in front of company, she didn’t look annoyed or even angry .Her face was completely white. She looked scared; Karolina realized she had never seen her mother ever experiencing that particular emotion.

The man turned towards Karolina. 

The man was in a muggle suit, but he was obviously a wizard, if the polished wand in his hand was a clue, (he wasn’t pointing or threatening with it, he was just holding in his clasped hands, easy as you please). 

Her mother might be scared, but this man obviously was not. 

“This is just a friend from my time at Hogwarts” her mother's voice was bordering on shrill, she was gesturing wildly, “he was just leaving-”

The man walked towards Karolina, and she froze in the doorway, feeling more than a little like a mouse caught in a trap. 

And the cat was getting closer.

“Hello.” the man said, smiling wide (his teeth shocking white), “I don’t think we have been properly introduced.”

“I’m Karolina.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She was unsure what to do, but part of her wanted to run, part of her wanted to move closer. It was like this guy was the sun, forcing her into orbit-

“I’m Jonah,” his voice was sirene and smile pleasant, but it was like someone poured ice water down her back. He reached out and took her hand, shaking it before letting it go again, “I have wanted to meet you for a while.”

“You have.” 

“You look just like your picture,” Jonah said, before amending, “In the paper of course.”

“Er yah.” Karolina said, not believing him for a second. What a strange thing to lie about, and it didn’t even seem like he was trying to conceal the deception. 

“What a charming girl you are,” Karolina’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion, “And seeker for Hufflepuff, shame I was in Ravenclaw-”

“Karolina go upstairs,” Her mother’s voice was no longer shrill. This was not her mother scared, this was something much less foreign, “Now.”

Her mother was angry; like really angry.

“Goodbye.” Karolina muttered walking up to the stairs, but she didn’t go upstairs, not right away. She stayed, just out of sight but listened by the door. At first she didn’t hear anything, but then, the voices started to rise again, and she heard the man named Jonah’s voice ringing as clear as a gunshot. 

“I think she even looks like me. How long do you think you can keep up this charade Leslie?”

“Keep your voice down,” Her mother seethed, but the jig, as it were, was up. 

Karolina ran upstairs, and quietly closed the door to her room, tears streaming down her face.

This wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. Everyone knew she took after her father, after Frank Dean. She flew like him, she was sorted into his old house, she even looked like him, they had the same wide smiles, and tanned skin-

But wasn’t that just something you said? Oh that baby takes after his father. You fly just like Frank used to. A nice thing to say. A kind thing.

In Karolina’s case an untrue thing.

She felt like she was going to throw up. 

She half sat and half collapsed into the chair next to the door, where there was an old desk, stationary spread out (she spent an embarrassing amount of time sending letters to Nico, so much so that she bought treats and a water dish especially for her owl, Glen). 

She wasn't sure how long she sat there, a half written letter in her eye line. 

If Nico was here, everything would be better (it usually was). She would say the right thing, hug her bordering on two tight. She would be able to stop crying and shaking.

She hasn't stopped shaking, or crying. 

Lucy noticed something was wrong, and started meowing up at her, circling her ankles. She picking up Lucy to put her on her lap, and started to pet her soft fur. It made things a bit better. At least, better enough that she could start writing a letter with shaky hands. 

“Nico, 

Remember that weird letter I got from my dad during our first year? The one where I apparently had a vampire in the family? I don’t think my father wrote that letter and it gets even more crazier from there.”

\----

This year on the Hogwarts Express, Nico and Karolina were the first ones to stake their claim on a compartment (Amy, to absolutely no one's surprise, was made Prefect and would be patrolling the train instead of sitting with them, this year). 

When Karolina saw Nico she almost burst into tears, she had missed her so much that it hurt. Nico had thrown her arms over Karolina’s shoulder (another time or place, she would have teased Nico, Karolina kept growing taller, but Nico had stayed petite, much to her chagrin). After they put there trunks away, and made sure the doors were completely closed, they begun talking about what had happened at her Grandfather's manor. 

“So Frank is-”

“Not my biological father,” Karolina said whispering, even though they were alone. She hadn’t been able to look her father in the eye the entire rest of the summer. She was terrified at the possibility he thought she was mad at him. She was definitely mad, but…

Frank had done absolutely nothing wrong. 

Did he know? Was there anything to know?

“According to-”

“Jonah.”

“Jonah,” Nico nodded, “We don’t know-”

“I don’t know his last name,” Karolina said, “couldn’t exactly ask my mom. I just that he was friends with Pride at school, and that he was in Ravenclaw-”

“Okay,” Nico said slowly, “So we look at Ravenclaws around when are parents went to school. Look into their family histories, see if any of them are halflings, if none of them are-”

“We know he was lying.” Karolina took a deep breath, “Or he wasn’t. This is so weird.”

Before she could say more the sliding door opened revealing Gerta and Molly’s smiling faces. 

“Hey Molly it’s so great to see you!” Karolina said, once Gert and Molly were fully in the compartment, dragging along their trunks, “You too, Gert.”

“Thank you,” Gert and Molly said at the same time as they all hugged each other. 

“You excited?” Nico asked, once they all settled back onto the benches. 

“Yep.” Molly nodded, her curls bouncing, “and nervous.”

“Let’s see your wand.”

“Dragon Heartstring,” Molly said, bringing out a beautiful speckled wand, “Elderwood.”

“Wow.” Nico wolf whistled. “That’s a deadly combination.”

“It is?” Molly’s eyes went as wide as saucers.

“She meant it as a good thing,” Karolina placaited her hands gesturing, “right Gert?”

Gert smiled, before she said, “That’s just Nico speak for-”

Before she could finish they were distracted as the door of the compartment opened.   
It was Alex and Chase, who had just found their compartment. 

“Hello,” Alex said with a bit of an awkward wave, at the exact same second Chase said, “Wow Karolina!”

“What?” Karolina’s hand immediately went up to her face. Did she have toothpaste on her chin or something? Why hadn’t Nico said anything-

“You’ve gotten even prettier,” Chase threw her a lopsided smile, that she was sure most considered charming, “You sure you don’t have any Vela in your family tree?”

“Pretty sure her mom would know about that-” Alex said laughing, clearly not knowing what he was stepping into. 

Karolina shifted from one foot to the other, avoiding both Chase’s loopy grin and Gert’s sour expression. She didn’t blame her, he was supposed to be her best friend and he hadn’t even said hello. 

“Hey Chase,” Gert muttered, but unfortunately Chase didn’t seem to notice.

“Her dad is pretty like a Veela, isn’t he.” Nico said, as she examined her nails, they were painted black, but the polish must have been charmed because every few seconds it changed texture, obsidian to slate to glass and back again. 

Karolina looked over at Nico, and her stomach twinged, Nico wouldn’t tell them-

“Although Leslie definitely could be part vampire,” Nico had a razor sharp smile.

“You know my Mom,” Karolina said with a smile that she wondered if anyone would notice was plastered on, “who knows what’s going on with her.”

“Yah,” Chase nodded with agreement, his grin doppy. 

They eventually settled into the compartment like usual Gert looking much less happy than before and Karolina feeling horribly guilty even though she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. She wished Chase would stop giving her furtive looks. She thought they moved past this last year.

Chase was a friend, nothing more. No one else seemed to notice how unhappy she was, Molly and Alex were oblivious, Chase even more so, and Gert, well, she was too wrapped up in her own hurt to think about anyone else at all. 

Nico reached out and squeezed Karolina’s hand, still staring out the window. 

She guessed at least one person could tell her fake smile from her real one. 

\-------

Molly got sorted into Gryffindor House after a thirty second house stall (Karolina tried not to be disappointed, but Molly would have fit in wonderfully in Hufflepuff.)

Karolina was excited for the new subjects they would take this year (despite her mother’s opinion of the matter). She and Gert were both taking Care of Magical Creatures, and Runes, it would be nice to have a study buddy. Nico wasn’t taking either though, much to her dismay, and was instead taking Arithmancy and Divination. While Chase was taking Muggle Studies, as well as Care of Magical Creatures with Gert and Karolina. 

Gert had yet to thaw completely, and Chase was following her around which was unfortunate. Luckily Quidditch started back up, so she had an outlet for all of her stressors (if she was diving a little too recklessly for the snitch in practice, that was her own business). Classes were fine and Quidditch was wonderful, but there was something else that occupied her time

And Nico’s. It seemed like all the Agatha Christie they devoured was finally coming to a good use because they had a real life mystery on there hands. 

Who was Karolina’s biological father. 

There were seven Jonah’s who went to school, overlapping with the Pride parents. 

They had narrowed it down to two (one Jonah was dead, they found pictures of three of them who were not the man Karolina had met, and the last was actually in Slytherin, not Ravenclaw, he couldn’t be halfling or the man Karolina met). 

“I’ve found it,” Nico said, a bit to loud for the library at 9 at night. “Jonah Wilkerson, he's the right age here to fit the bill. I found his picture-”

Karolina leaned over to look, it was an old Daily Prophet article, and it had a boy of about twelve with the headline “Jonah Wilkerson, One of a Kind.”

“That’s him,” Karolina whispered, “That’s the man I saw.” 

She isn’t sure how she knows, but something about that grin as the photographers cameras flash-

“Why is his picture in the paper-”

“Let me see,” Nico squints as she reads the small print, “ ‘Jonah Wilkerson is about to start his first year at Hogwarts this September. The first close male descendant of a Veela (his maternal grandmother is a full blooded Veela, and his mother half-Veela) to also be a wizard, and not, as all others in the record a squib. As most know, most descendants of Veela’s are female (nine out of ten) and unlike their male counterparts are more likely to be witches, nearly two-thirds…”

Nico trailed off. 

It was him. That was Jonah.

It were like all the puzzle pieces were suddenly fitting together. The strange letter her first year, the Sorting Hat’s comment about her ‘nature’, and her mother’s intense fear about Karolina meeting Jonah. 

No wonder her mother hated her, her entire existence was proof of her affair. She might not like Karolina but she loved Frank. 

“My father is not my father,” Karolina said, feeling, suddenly, very light headed. 

“You’re part Veela.” Nico murmured, Karolina had momentarily forgotten about that. She put her hands in her head. 

“At least that explains why that kid ran into a wall last year-”

“That happened?” Karolina asked, momentarily distracted. 

“If your biological father is 1/4th Veela, that makes you-”

“One eighth.” Karolina said dully, “Though I don’t think that will matter much to Gert. Oh god, if she found out I was part Veela, I don’t think she’d ever forgive me.”

“It’s not your fault-”

“No,” Karolina swallowed, “I hate my mother.”

Nico didn’t say ‘you don’t mean that’, or ‘you’re just angry’, she just nodded. 

“Are you going to tell him?”

“Frank?”

“Yah.”

Karolina shook her head. 

“It would break his heart,” Karolina said slowly, “The only thing he loves more than me is my Mom. If I took that away-”

“He’s still your Dad,” Nico started.

“He’s still my Dad,” Karolina agreed, “But I am not going to take away his wife.”

\------

Despite the bombshell news about her genetics Karolina and Nico decided to keep it to themselves. It would only hurt Frank if people found out (and a hopeful voice in the back of her head, still hoped that they were wrong, that this was all just a terrible misunderstanding). Plus Gert really would lose a gasket if it turned out Chase’s awkward flirting turned out to be right on the money. 

When she got back to her dorm room that night she hadn’t cried. She did look in the mirror a minute too long after brushing her teeth. She always thought she looked like her father, she could never completely hate how she looked (or rather how people treated her because of it) because she looked like Frank. Now all she could see was her hair, too bright, gold edging on unnatural, her eyes too. Her eyes were too blue, and the color gradient shifted, it always had, from the color of the ocean in Brighton, to the pastel of baby boys nursery, to the soft petals of a cornflower. Her skin, too, it had a faint shimmer, even in total darkness, like the moon, barely shining, on a starless night. She had always just thought the oddness could be explained away, the lighting, her magical ability.

Now she had nothing to hide behind. No more lies. 

Frank sent her weekly letters, which she responded to warmly, even if she felt incredibly guilty. She pushed those feelings down, because if anyone was innocent in all of this, it was her father. He didn’t deserve to know the horrible, terrible truth. 

Karolina’s mother had sent her a few letters, and she hadn’t written any back. She knew she would have to eventually, but right now she didn’t know how to write a letter that didn’t start with “You are a lying bitch and I hate you.”

(When she told Nico that, she had let out a shocked laugh, and she had said “Didn’t know you could swear Dean.”)

Karolina tried to keep busy, and it helped. She threw herself into Quidditch, not just attending the practices four days a week, but doing ten hours extra conditioning and flying practice. She was also doing every possible extra credit project and assignment (her grades were the best they ever was, her mother would be thrilled, the irony of this didn’t escape Karolina’s notice.) 

Her newest project and way to keep busy, was aggressively over planning her first trip to Hogsmeade. She knew she was over thinking it, but after a crushing defeat against Ravenclaw the first game of the season, and the paternity drama, Karolina needed something fun to look forward. 

“I am so excited for Hogsmeade,” Karolina said, almost bouncing up and down, opposite Nico in the library, where they were supposed to be working on their potions essay, “Where do you think we should go first-”

“Well about that.” Nico looked uncharacteristically nervous. 

“What?”

“Alex asked me to go with him.”

“Oh,” Karolina thought about it for a second, “That’s fine, I figured we would meet up with everyone at the Three Broomsticks anyway-”

“No,” Nico was looking at her hands in her lap, “Just the two of us.”

“Oh.” Karolina said, “Like a date.”

“Yah, exactly like that.”

Karolina felt her heart drop. She tried to smile, and to be happy for her. She started chattering away about how great that was, and how great they were as a couple and how happy she was about them, about everything.

Not a moment of it sounded genuine to her own ears. The worst part is, Nico either didn’t notice or, more likely, decided not to notice. She just nodded along with a smile. 

“I am glad you are happy about this,” Nico said, “I wouldn’t have known what I would have done if you hadn’t approved.”

Karolina didn’t want to dwell on why, that night, it took so long for her to fall asleep. 

\-----

Karolina and Nico still celebrate their birthdays together, but it is a more subdued affair then the last two years. They spend a few hours together, before Nico went off to hang out with Alex. 

Alex kept popping up, walking Nico to her classes, or for after dinner walks. Karolina tried to be happy for her, she really did, but she felt like she was being pushed out of her own life, bit by bit. It made Karolina irritable all the time, quick to anger, too. Chase definitely wasn’t helping.

She had really thought he had got over this… infatuation, last year. That turned out not to be the case. 

Karolina hadn’t told him outright that she wasn’t interested, but to be fair he hadn’t outright said he was (but it was painfully, painfully obvious). The thing was she loved spending time with Chase when he wasn’t being mooney. He was sweet and kind, and a good study buddy. 

But that was all. 

Nico seemed to think it was more; she would make little comments, that had shifted over time, the gist of which changed for ‘chase has got it bad’, to ‘aren't you two cute’. It was starting to make Karolina sick to her stomach. 

To make matters worse, Gert was now completely ignoring her, no easy feat considering they had half of their clases together. 

She knew she should put an end to it, but she did not know how. 

“Hey Karolina.”

Karolina looked up, it must be nearing midnight, and it was just her and Chase in the common room.

“Hey Chase.”

“I was thinking…” Karolina waited, somewhat impatiently for Chase to finish his sentence.

He didn’t.

“Yes.”

“Maybe we could go to Hogsmeade,” Chase started, “If you don’t have a date for tomorrow.”

“I don’t,” Karolina muttered, “Have a date for tomorrow.” 

Karolina knew this was the moment, that she needed to end it now. 

“Cool.” Chase looked so happy.   
Karolina stood up stretching, and Chase was edging closer and closer. Chase leans in, and Karolina realizes, a split second too late, what he is doing. The second there lips touch, Karolina pushes him away. Hard. 

“What the hell do you think your doing?” Karolina screams, as Chase stumbles and falls into a nearby fern.

“Your going to wake everyone up-”

“I don’t care!”

“Karolina-”

“No,” Karolina was pissed, “You don’t get to go around and steal first kisses. I don’t want to kiss you-”

“But we are friends-”

“Yah friends!”

“I thought.” Chase looked ghostly white. 

“I was being nice,” Karolina spit out, “And I have learned my lesson. You don’t even like me, you just think I’m pretty, that’s all anyone thinks-”

She knew at this point she was probably being unfair, but it was like everything that she had been trying to press down was boiling over. Nico and Alex, her new identity as part Veela, Gert ignoring her, her mothers betrayal; in this moment she had never felt more lonely, or more angry. 

“Is everything okay?” It was Pria, one of her roommates, in striped pajama bottoms and a Chudley Cannons t-shirt.

“No, it’s not,” Karolina said, malice seeping into her voice, a stabbing pain hit her in the chest. In that moment she sounded exactly like her mother. 

“Why don’t you come to bed, Karolina,” Pria said quietly.

“Fine.”

“I’m sorry.” Chase said quietly.

“You should be.”  
Karolina didn’t say anything else that night, and Pria, thankfully, didn’t pry. As she fell asleep, another question began to grow, despite everything else that still weighed on her. 

It wasn’t just Chase, the thought of any boy in their year kissing her was like hearing nails run down a chalkboard. Any boy kissing her, even in the future, seemed alien and wrong. 

How could there be something else weird and different about her? Didn’t she have enough to contend with? Gert would have a field day with that, the part-Veela who seduced boys on accident, and didn’t even want the spoils of her victory.

Fuck everything. 

\-----

Karolina didn’t go down to breakfast the next morning, her roommates were so excited, chattering away about Hogsmeade. She didn’t want to spread her gloom, or see Chase.

Pria loitered behind the rest, and came over to sit next to Karolina on her bed, were she had been pretending to read her Runes textbook. 

“You okay?”

“I guess.”

“I don’t know what got into Chase.” Karolina took a deep breath, “I knew he had a crush-”

“Bit of an understatement.” Pria said, not unkindly.

“Yah.”

“So you don’t like Chase.” She didn’t ask it like a question.

“I don’t think it’s Chase,” Karolina said slowly, “Or at least, not just Chase.”

“What do you mean?” 

“I think it’s all,” Karolina took a deep breath, “boys, I think it is all of them.”

“Well do you like girls?” Karolina didn’t look Pria in the eye. Honestly she hadn’t really thought about that as a possibility. She seemed to make men gravitate towards her, pull them into her orbit, (with a jolt, Karolina realized that’s how she felt about Jonah, that he had the ability to pull people in; is that what happened with her mother?) Girls didn’t seem affected by that pull, though. They either treated her normally, like Nico, her roomates, and Molly, or resented her for her looks, like Gert. 

Even if she liked girls, would any of them like her back?

“I don’t know.” Karolina thought about her tutor for a few years, Amanda James, who she hadn’t been able to directly look at without blushing or messing up her words. There was Gemma, her old Quidditch captain, who she found herself only half listening too at practice, and instead focusing on how her red hair looked in direct sunlight. And there was Nico; Nico was her anchor, her best friend, and quietly, in her own head on nights when she couldn’t fall asleep, her soulmate. In her own hazy approximation of the future, there had never been husbands for the two of them, instead they had houses side by side, sharing a garden. 

But that was just a childish, immature fantasy.

Right?

“Ok,” Pria said, “Let’s try.”

“Try what?” Karolina said confused. 

“You can kiss me,” Pria said with a sunny smile, like she suggested sharing a slice of cake, “Don’t get too attached though, I have my eyes on Stacy, that Slytherin in our year-”

Karolina’s head was spinning with too much information. Not only did Pria like girls, but she liked a girl in their year who might also like girls. Like, this was a normal thing; like she wasn’t a freak.   
Maybe you should do it, piped up a small voice in the back of her head, maybe you can see if you even like kissing Pria, if you don’t like it, then you can stop worrying about it. 

“Okay.” Karolina squeaks. 

“Cool,” Pria smiles, and she leaned in, and kisses her. It’s not a peck and it’s not like she has seen in the common room, where it seems like people are trying to play quidditch with their tongues. It’s all over rather quickly, but Pria’s lips are warm and soft, and her hands slip into Karolina’s hair. She feels the kiss down to her toes, it isn’t lighting striking or fireworks, or like she’s heard whispered by giggling girls.

But it’s really, really-

“Well how was that?” Pria said with a smile, after pulling away from a slightly in shock Karolina. 

“Nice.” Pria laughs and Karolina blushes deeper.

“I mean did it help.”

“Yah,” Karolina nodded, “It did.”

Pria might not be the girl she wants to end up with, but Karolina knows in that instant, for sure, that she is not going to end up with a boy, but a girl.

\----

Karolina wasn’t sure how to tell Nico about Chase or Pria or anything that happened. She couldn’t stand the thought of lying to her either. 

Karolina ends up not going to Hogsmeade, that first weekend. so she ended up hiding in her dorm, waiting to be sure that everyone already for Hogsmeade without her. 

Turns out, though she didn’t hide well enough.

Karolina walked down the hall and spotted Chase, and immediately tried to turn around and hide in her room, but she didn’t walk quite fast enough. 

“Wait.”

“I don’t want to talk to you Chase.” Karolina had way too much on her mind, she didn’t think she could deal with Chase too. 

“I want to say I’m sorry.” Karolina stopped and looked at Chase, he really did look sorry. 

“Okay.”

“I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.” Karolina agreed. 

“I get that now,” Chase took a deep breath, “I won’t do it again. I really do like being your friend.”

“I like being your friend to,” Karolina admitted, “But you have to stop following me around. And you have to apologize to Gert-”

“I did,” Chase said, “This morning. We actually are going to Hogsmeade-”

“Well don’t leave her waiting,” Karolina interrupted, but with a smile on her face, “I won’t be blamed for that too.”

“I didn’t just like you because you were pretty,” Chase said, turning to look back at her, “You are a really great person.”

Karolina smiled in thanks as he slipped out of the Common Room. 

She decided to stay in the Castle, even though her roomates invited her to go with them to Hogsmeade. It just didn’t seem as fun, all of a sudden. She spotted Molly at lunch, remembering that she is too young to go to Hogsmeade; they end up playing round after round of wizard chess with Molly in the Great Hall, instead. 

“You would think I would win at least one round,” Karolina shook her head in disbelief.

“I told you,” Molly said brightly, “I am really, really good at this.”

“Don’t talk to me!” Nico’s voice echoed down the hall, all the way to where Karolina and Molly were talking.

“Nico-”

Nico barreled around the corner, she stopped when she saw Karolina and Molly, mouths wide open. 

“Alex,” Nico’s voice was suddenly ice cold, and dangerously quiet, “Go away.” 

Alex, who had barely caught up to her, out of breath, turned on his heel and nearly ran away. 

“Hey Molly, maybe-”

“Go with Nico,” Molly said admently, “She needs you way more than I do right now.”

Karolina went to where Nico was standing, gently grabbed her by the elbow, steering her towards the door. They walked in silence, past the greenhouses. It was only when they reached the Lake that Karolina began to speak. 

“What happened?” Karolina asked.

“He only asked me out,” Nico said, her voice broken, “because it was my sister's idea. He was trying to appease her, because he wanted to date her. Amy knew, I was just part of their weird courtship.”

“Oh.” Karolina was going to hit Alex upside the head. Amy too for that matter. 

“I am never dating again,” Nico said bitterly, “Ever.”

“Okay.” Karolina said.

“I’m serious.”

“I know.” Karolina said, pausing before she continued, “Chase tried to kiss me.”

“Oh.”

“I pushed him into a fern.”

Nico gave Karolina a strange look, and then started laughing. Once Nico started laughing, Karolina started laughing and soon they had to stop walking. By the time they were done, Karolina’s ribs ached, and she felt better than she had in months. 

“I wish I could have seen the look on his face,” Nico said, wiping away a tear, “You really are not into Chase, are you?”

“It’s not just Chase,” Karolina fidgeted. “I don’t want to date boys.”

“Okay,” Nico's eyes went wide, “So you want to date-”

“Yah.” Karolina nodded, she took a deep breath and said the truth for the first time, “I want to date girls. Like one girl, but. I don’t like boys, like that.”

“Cool.” Nico said, nodding, “I think that’s cool.”

“Cool.” Karolina smiled. Somehow, it was all a whole lot less scary, knowing Nico was okay with her. 

“I know you hate your sister meddling,” Karolina started, “Was that the whole reason you were so mad?”

“Maybe not.”

“Okay.” 

“He was my first kiss,” Nico said softly, “And he was using me, to get to my sister.”

Karolina wanted to punch Alex.

“Chase was my first kiss, too,” Karolina offered, “But I got a redo, kind of.”

“How?” Nico’s face scrunched up in confusion. 

“You know Pria,” Karolina said, “The Hufflepuff in our year-”

“Your roommate,” Nico’s voice was flat and unreadable. 

“Yah.” Karolina nodded, “After the Chase thing, she kissed me, like so I could see if it was different kissing a girl-”

“Was it?”

“Yah it was.” Karolina smiled, “It was better.”

“Are you two-”

“No,” Karolina said adamantly, “I think she likes Stacey Mcnamara in Slytherin.”

“Oh” Nico paused for a second, and it looked like she was thinking something over, “It was not Alex being a boy that was the problem, unfortunately. It was him being a dick.”

“Yah.” Karolina agreed, really, the next time she saw Alex, she was going to hex him. 

“Maybe you could…”

“What?”

“Nevermind.”

“Just tell me,” Karolina was worried now, “ please.”

“I want a do-over too.”

“You want a…” Then it dawned on Karolina, do-over, like she had with Pria, only this time with-

“Yah.” Nico nodded, and she grabbed Karolina’s hand, a normal occurrence, but in this moment-

“Oh.”

“It’s stupid,” Nico said, still holding her hand, “You probably don’t even want-”

“Okay.” Karolina had no idea what she was getting herself into (also fourteen years without being kissed, to two, now maybe three different people in twenty four hours? If she cared what her mother thought anymore, she would have been mortified.)

“Okay.”

“Just stand still,” Karolina said, “I haven’t had enough practice to be good at this.”

Nico looked like she was suppressing a giggle.

“Don’t laugh at me,” Karolina whined, “Or I won’t kiss you at all-”

Nico just shook her head and leaned up, placing her hands on her shoulders, forcing Karolina to bend down and meet her in the middle. Nico placed a soft, quick kiss on her lips; nothing but a peck really, even shorter than Pria’s kiss. This time though, it was like every nerve ending was on fire, like the world was spinning, and she was lacking oxygen. 

She got the comparison to lightening now. 

It was just because they were best friends right? They were both so close, it was surely to be more intense-

“How was that?” Karolina said, finding herself echoing Pria’s words, “Figure anything out.”

Nico tucked a strand of hair behind Karolina’s ear, smiling up at her. 

“Yah,” Nico smiled, “You are my favorite person in the entire world.”

Karolina smiled back, her stomach flipping. They finished their walk around the lake; they didn’t talk about Alex or the kiss, anymore. 

\-----

Amy and Alex start dating soon after the Hogsmeade trip, to absolutely no one's surprise. 

Nico didn’t talk to either of them for weeks (which meant Karolina hardly talked to them for weeks, a result). Life went on of course, Gert and Chase were joined at the hip again, and they tended to spend more time with Nico and Karolina, not because they picked sides, but because they were in the same year. Molly was close with Karolina and, obviously, Gert, so she spent more time with them too. Amy and Alex didn’t seem to mind, but she had seen Amy try to talk to Nico a handful of times, each one unsuccessful. 

Everything went back to normal on a completely unexceptional day in November. It was all dirty looks and the silent treatment, and then, suddenly, it wasn’t. 

They were at the library and Nico plopped her books on the table next to Amy and Alex. When Karolina threw her a confused look, Nico shrugged.

“Me and Amy talked,” Nico told her later. “We are good now.”

Karolina didn’t press any further. She still hadn’t completely forgiven Alex for hurting her best friend, but she was able to plaster on a smile and keep the peace, especially if it meant Nico got her sister back. 

Autumn faded into Winter, without much of a fuss, except for another loss, this time against Slytherin, in Quidditch, and stress over final exams (though it was a relief that Gert was no longer mad at her, Gert, Chase and Karolina, made an excellent study group, especially for Care of Magical Creatures). 

Karolina was relieved when she found out that her parents would both be traveling this winter break, and it would be better to stay at Hogwarts this Christmas. It turned out, that all the Pride parents had one commitment or another, because a week after Karolina found out, all the other kids announced their plans too. 

It was official, everyone was staying at Hogwarts for Christmas this year.

They did Secret Santa, (a muggle tradition, that Molly loved), and it turned out to be rather fun. They all met up in the Great Hall, surrounding the fire, after sleeping in a good long time. Gert had organized the picking of names weeks ago, and no one’s present disappointed. 

Molly got Karolina, and she got her a ‘care for your broom’ kit, much to her delight. Amy got Nico some magical nail polish and eyeliner (the kind that changes colors) and Nico got Chase a pound of candies from Honeydukes. Karolina originally had Gert, but Chase made her switch with him, so she ended up getting Alex, much to her dismay. He seemed to like the book she got him on Defense Against the Dark Arts fine, and it was all worth it when Gert opened up her present, and charmed attachment for her telescope, that allowed her to see everything more clearly, but especially Venus and Mars. Gert and shrieked when she opened it, it was so unlike Gert, it was the highlight of the evening. Alex got Molly a charmed hat, that looked and acted like a lion, which she adored, and Gert finished off the night, by giving Amy powdered moonstone (apparently she had been running short, and hadn’t wanted anything else). 

After Christmas brunch, but before dinner, they all ran around in the snow, building castles, and hitting each other with snowballs. They only came back inside when they were well and truly soaked to the boned, and starting to shiver; before Karolina could make her way to the Hufflepuff dormitory to change, Nico pulled her aside. 

“I know we didn’t agree on getting each other presents-” Nico started, grabbing a small paper box from her pocket, no bigger than a match box. 

“I got you something, too” Karolina smiled, “It’s small-”

“Mine too,” Nico grinned, “You open yours first.”

“Okay,” Karolina said, and she opened the wrapping paper, underneath was a tiny cardboard jewelry box, and inside that was a small hair comb, silver, with a sparrow in flight, its body a pink stone.

“It’s rose quartz,” Nico said, putting her hands in her pockets, “It’s supposed to be good luck. I thought, well, you had such a hard few months you could-”

“I love it,” Karolina said, “Here-”

She handed Nico her present and the empty box, and she quickly tucked it in her hair, holding back a few twisted strands.

“How does it look?”

“Beautiful.” Nico said, “I spent so long picking that out, it was a bit embarrassing. I had to get the bird though. It reminded me of you on a broom.”

Karolina blush deepened, and she realized that they had never talked about the kiss. Nico’s do-over kiss. They had plowed forward in their friendship, completely platonically. A girl a year above them asked her out before break (she had a feeling Pria did some matchmaking), but she had said no. It wasn’t that she wasn’t nice or pretty, but it felt like it wouldn’t be fair somehow. 

She didn’t want to hurt someone when her heart, for better or for worse, belonged to someone else. 

She didn’t tell Nico, even though she knew what she felt was more than what you feel for a best friend, because being her best friend was more than enough (she pushed away the thought, that one day it might not be). 

“Your turn.” Karolina said, and Nico ripped into the paper with very little patience, which made Karolina smile.”

In Nico’s hands were, Tarot Cards, that she had picked out nearly two months ago. 

“I know you like Divination-” Nico had hardly been able to stop talking about it, she was already reading the textbook for next year. 

“We won’t even start reading Tarot until 6th year,” Nico said, awe in her voice. Karolina had found them in the magic store in Hogsmeade, they were hand painted, each card moving like a portrait at hogwarts. 

“Well,” Karolina smiled, “You will be doing NEWT level stuff by fourth year I reckon, so I thought you should be prepared-”

Nico looked up at her like she hung the moon, before leaning up and kissing her cheek (which burned, long after she returned to her dormitory). 

All in all it was the best Christmas Karolina ever had.  
.   
\----

Winter soon melted and ebbed away, and Spring was not much different from its predecessor. Amy and Alex were still together. Gert and Chase were joined at the hip (often with Molly tagging along behind). Karolina and Nico spent every possible free hour together. Karolina’s classes went fine, and Hufflepuff continued it’s losing streak in Quidditch, (much to her captain’s dismay, but Karolina, secretly, didn’t care as long as she had a chance to fly.) 

Exams came and went, and all too quickly, it was the last free day of term, and Karolina was facing three months with her mother (who she had written a total of two letters to all year) and without Nico. For weeks she had been hardly able to sleep. Nico must have been feeling some fraction of this dread, because while the rest were lounging on the banks of the river, Nico insisted they walk together, alone. 

As soon as they were out of sight of the others, Nico thread her fingers through Karolina’s (she had been doing that lately, only reaching out for her when they were alone; she tried not to read into it, but she worried that Nico didn’t want others to see and think they were dating, or worse, she was somehow ashamed of her). 

“I am going to miss you,” Nico said suddenly, “This summer.”

“I am going to miss you too,” Karolina’s hand went up instinctually up to her hair, where the rose quartz bird was holding back a small braid. She wore the comb every day, excepting Quidditch.

“I have wanted to tell you,” Nico stopped suddenly, causing Karolina to almost trip over her own feet, “Shit sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Karolina said, “What did you want to tell me?”

“Well,” Nico looked nervous, “the thing is-”

Nico stopped talking all of a sudden, her eyes went foggy, like there was mist covering her pupils.

“The search for everlasting life, will only end with toil and strife.” It was Nico’s voice, coming from her moving mouth, but it didn’t sound like Nico. It was cold, detached, unfeeling. 

“What the hell-”

“The sins of the father and mother, their fruit will gain sight. The dragon child, the orphan, the seer, the child of light-”

“Nico you are really scaring me,” tears welled up in Karolina’s eyes.

“-One will fall, the rest will rise. None can live unless that one dies-”

As quickly as it started it ended.

Nico collapsed, like a puppet with its strings cut, and Karolina, tried to catch her as she fell. She was only semi successful, as she managed to soften the blow, as they both fell into the grass. 

“Karolina.” Nico whispered, and curled up into Karolina and started to cry silently. 

“Do you know what you just said?” Nico said, “It’s like the words are still echoing. Like aftershocks. You know what it sounds like, someone’s going to die-”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Karolina said, not believing her own words. 

“What am I?”

“Your Nico,” Karolina said, her voice sounding calmer than she felt. 

“I’m a freak.” Nico started to hyperventilate, “That was a prophecy, I don’t know- I am not even the best in our year in Divination, forget about Arithmancy-”

She was prodigious in both, but it didn’t feel like the best time to mention that. 

“We are both freaks okay?” Karolina, put Nico’s face in her hands, “You are a seer, I am a part Veela bastard, okay?”

Nico let out a breath that might have been an attempt at a laugh.

“It’s going to be okay.” Karolina rubbed away a tear as it fell down Nico’s cheek.

“How do you know?” Nico’s eyes were red. 

“Trust me,” Karolina said with a sad sort of smile, and dread in her stomach, “I don’t think things could get weirder.”

\------

It was like Nico was in a trance in the days leading up to the end of term. Not that Karolina could blame her, it seemed like trying to maintain normal, was like trying to keep sand from slipping through your fingers.

She went through all the motions, together (Karolina hardly left her sides that entire week). They ate meals in the Great Hall, went to their exams. They took walks and they met with the rest of the Pride Kids. 

When they took the Hogwarts Express home, Nico got quieter and quieter the further they got. The rest of the compartment played exploding snap, and read and gossiped, and Nico-

She seemed like she was a world away. 

It was like Nico was seeing straight through her; she didn’t really see her until they were on the platform, waiting for their parents to descend, and Nico hugged her so tight she almost had the wind knocked out of her. 

“I am going to write to you everyday.” Nico whispered into her ear, and her heart skipped. As quickly as she was there, her arms warm around her, she was gone, disappearing into the crowd with her family. 

She was then was greeted by her parents, two of them anyway. 

Her mother gave her a tight smile, her father, Frank, she called him both now, interchangeably in her head, gave her a hug, (no matter what she called him in her head, Jonah would never be her real father, just the guy who donated some DNA, and Veela characteristics).

Her parents talked about how great this summer would be, the three of them. Within a week they were both on work trips and Karolina was left at her Grandfather's house. The rational, she supposed, was she could get into less trouble in the country then she could in the beating heart of a muggle city. 

Either way, now she was alone. 

Again.

The muggy June heat weighed on her skin, when she woke up this morning, and she felt antsy, like there was something she should be doing and wasn’t. 

She had already written Nico a letter today, and Gert and Molly one each as well. She had played with Lucy for an hour, who had eventually grew bored and decided, instead, to fall asleep in a sunbeam. 

She decided to go for a walk, throwing on trainers, and a sweater around her waist, (even in summer the clouds could turn to rain in an instant). She was about a half mile away from the Manor, near the treeline, when she saw something in an old Oak; was it a niffler, with something shiny or-

Without thinking she reached up, on her tippy toes, up into to the leaves. The branch caught on her bracelet, she rolled her eyes at her own stupidity (it was nothing and now she was stuck, typically), and she tried to twist it free. The clasp broke and Karolina’s skin was like an electric watercolor.

Her skin was pink and blue and orange changing like a moving alive thing. Like an Aurora Borealis. She didn’t just glow, she glittered. 

It was more than that, it was like there was power, right beneath her skin, in her hands. She had been straining, for years, to feel this magic, this power, and now-

She could bring down the entire Manor behind her if she wanted to, she was sure of it. 

“What the F-” Karolina started to say, before she passed out, falling into the bright green grass below her feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow y'all! A lot happened this chapter! Next chapter is going to be a lot of fun (teaser- Old Lace, more kisses, and something is going on with Pride).


	5. (year 4)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> #FakeDating #Seer/Child of Light #Dragon's Egg #FireWhiskey

Nico’s mother and sister were annoying the shit out of her. 

They were chatting in the front seat, happy as you pleased, and Nico was left to her own devices in the backseat, (small victories, Nico supposed). She should have been happy too, giggling about her fourth year at Hogwarts, teasing her sister about how serious she took her role as a prefect and her nervousness over NEWTs (despite the fact that she got all Os and one E in her OWLs). She wanted to do this, be normal, but not much about the future was exciting or fun or simple, but rather dread inducingly terrifying. 

She wasn’t much for company, as of late. 

Nico had spent the entire summer with memories from the year previous echoing around her head, mixed in with growing dread about her prophecy, confusion over her new identity as a Seer, and worry, constant worry about Karolina. Why should the car ride to Kings Cross be any different?

When she fell asleep at night, it was like all her worrying and needling during the day fragmented and she saw a kaleidoscope of memory and prophecy and the chaos threatened to eat her alive. 

The search for everlasting life, will only end with toil and strife.

Alex had kissed her and it was nice. It was really nice; she felt like this was what she was supposed to be doing. Alex is smart and funny and he likes her. Nico pushes away the feeling of dread at even the idea of telling Karolina about it. 

Karolina was sweet and gorgeous and will have her own boyfriend soon (probably Chase, who is looking more like a golden retriever every day, much to Gert’s displeasure). Nico didn’t expect having to push away the wholy unpleasant feeling at the mere prospect of Karolina dating, too. She had to though, and it kept her up at night. 

(She was her best friend, best friends got jealous when other people monopolize their time… Right?)

The sins of the father and mother, their fruit will gain sight. 

They were walking back from Hogsmeade and it had started snowing, and she loved the snow. She really wished that it was not snowing this particular moment. 

“I really like Amy,” Alex is quiet, so quiet. The sting of rejection was real and it hurt, and she hated the tears that ran down her face. 

She feel stupid, so unbelievably stupid. 

The dragon child

Karolina liked girls not boys. She told Nico this like she might be mad at her for it, and the only thing that she is mad about is that Kar got a re-do and she didn’t. 

So she asked for one, with no expectation that Karolina would say yes, but she did. 

She said yes. 

Nico kissed Karolina and her heart stopped. It was so quick, she had to pull away, because if she kissed her any longer, Nico was convinced she would have drowned. If she didn’t stop kissing her, she never would have stopped. 

The orphan

“I didn’t think you were invested,” Amy with a patient smile that set her teeth on edge, “I thought you were just marking time until you ended up with Karolina. You won’t be happy with anyone else, you know that right?”

Nico didn’t answer, but her sister was too smart for her own good. 

Karolina was it for her, she had always been it for her (she was still young, though, right? Things could change, right?)

The seer 

Karolina got her Tarot cards for Christmas, and Karolina looks even prettier than usual (not an easy feat) with rosy cheeks from the nearby fires, whose flames were sparked in red, green and gold for the occasion. The rose quartz clip shined in Karolina’s hair, the one that she spent so much time picking out. 

She almost kissed her for real, without hiding behind ‘do-overs’, but then the moment passes (and she almost lets out a sigh of relief, because for better or for worse, this will change everything), and she will get another chance, though, right?

The child of light.

Nico should just tell her, she means to tell her, but... 

Pria must have spread the word Karolina was interested in the fairer sex, (that’s what real friends did, Nico supposed, help their friends get dates, not pray that nobody ever, ever asked them out). Nico had always been used to the boys who followed Karolina around, but now it wasn’t just boys, there were girls, too. 

Pretty girls, older girls, who cheer in the stands at games, and lean in when they talk to her, playing with her hair. Karolina blushed at the attention, she never blushed when boys talked to her (she hardly used to notice when boys talked to her, she would usually be only half paying attention, and instead trying to catch Nico’s eye, so she would come and save her). 

One will fall

Nico doesn’t hold her hand in front of anyone else anymore. What if Karolina wanted to date Carrie or Mae or one of them? It would be easy enough to sabotage (she spent way too long thinking about ways she could). It would be wrong, Nico knew that; Carrie was sweeter than candy floss and Mae, despite caring way more about the rules than anyone who was sane, was a good person. What kind of person would try to ruin others happiness, just because she was too much of a coward to go after what she wanted? She couldn’t stand in Karolina’s way could she? Best friends don’t stand in each other’s way. 

The rest will rise. 

“You have to tell her,” Amy said, her voice low, her head nodding at Karolina in the corner of the library where a fifth year Hufflepuff, Lee Anne, had stopped by to chat, her giggle grating and sharp against the quiet of the library, “Or she’s going to get snapped up-”

“But what if it ruins everything?” Nico whispered, “She’s my best friend-”

“You won’t know until you ask her, will you?”

None can live 

Nico grabbed Karolina’s hand as they walked along the lake, and the smile she got in return was blinding. She was so close to saying what has been throwing beneath her skin for weeks (years if she’s going to be honest with herself):

“I want to be with you.”

“Really be with you.”

“I love-”

But before she could say any of the words she had practiced over and over in her head, the world got hazy, and nothing, nothing would ever be the same. 

Unless that one dies

She had laid in her bed in the Ravenclaw tower, wondering what it all would mean. If she was the Seer, she might die stopping stopping someone from doing something awful. If she didn’t die, someone else would. When would she have the next Prophecy? Would that be her life, from now on; waiting to give death sentences in the form of riddles she couldn’t begin to untangle?

She hadn’t been sleeping particularly well, which probably goes without saying. 

“Were here!” Her mother chirped, uncharacteristically chipper, “You ready?”

Amy ran off to see Alex as soon as they fell through the trick wall onto the platform; Alex was a newly minted Prefect, with the shiny badge to prove it, meaning the both of them would spend the train ride patrolling (which sounded rather dull, to her, personally- she never had understood the appeal of being a Prefect). Her mother kissed her on the cheek and left her too it. Nico wasn’t sure what it meant that she was not sad at her mother’s quick departure (or her father’s rushed goodbye that morning), she supposed some biological families grew to be roomates eventually, only tied together because of duty, and not much more. She was still close with Amy (the Alex issue besides), though they didn’t spend as much time together as they did when they were children, but her parents were becoming more and more like strangers with every passing year. 

She just didn’t care that much though, even if she should. She just had too much to worry about, to include that in her worries as well. 

Nico saw Karolina first, as she waited on the platform. She had her hair in two braids, tied with yellow and black ribbon braided into the strands and she gingerly carrying the picnic basket that was surely carrying Lucy. People actually stopped and gave her a double take as they passed. Karolina was not even fifteen yet, and Nico saw grown wizards looking too long; it made her sick to her stomach. She might be part Veela, but that didn’t excuse men leering at her (even if she was older, how is looking at someone like they are a piece of meat ever okay?) 

Karolina’s father, that is to say, Frank, hovered behind her, (he was as handsome as ever, but was it Nico’s imagination, but did he look older? A little more jittery?) Karolina was looking around the platform, her head craning; Nico realized with a jolt that she was looking for her. 

Nico had almost told Karolina how she felt, on the muggy early summer day, but then the world went to shit, but she knew that she couldn’t tell her now. That chance had gone up in smoke as soon as she made her prophecy. 

It didn’t seem fair, to anyone, to throw another complication into the mix. They had bigger things to deal with than Nico’s crush (it was so much bigger than a crush; well maybe crush was the right word, because sometimes she felt like she was going to collapse with the feelings of it, under the weight of it.) 

Nico could get over it. 

She had to get over it. 

Besides, they had something much bigger to deal with.

Nico had gotten a letter from Karolina a few weeks after her prophecy. Something happened to Karolina and her best friend wasn’t sure what it was. They had increased their letter volume (something she honestly hadn’t thought was possible), but neither could find in their parents libraries a reason someone would suddenly turn into a living rainbow.

“It’s not just my skin changing color,” Karolina had written, “It’s like their is this power, just underneath my skin. The power was too much for me, at first. I think that’s why I passed out the first time. I have been practicing though, staying without my bracelet for longer and longer. It’s like, my entire life I have been in handcuffs, and now I am free.”

Her bracelet itself was also under scrutiny, at least for the two of them. It was supposed to be a bracelet for healers so in the case of an emergency, they would know that she was allergic to Billywig Stings; Karolina had worn the nondescript bracelet since she was a baby.

“Either my parents don’t know,” Karolina had written, angry splotches bordering the page, like the kind that only happened when she was writing and was particularly annoyed, “And they are complete and total idiots, or they knew there was something wrong with me, or at least something different, and they have just decided I am not worth infoming.”

Needless to say, they both had decided not to tell anyone else about Nico’s new status as a Seer, the prophecy or Karolina's… lights. 

The seer. 

The child of light. 

More than anything else, that was what kept her up at night. They hadn’t written to each other about it, explicitly anyway, but if Nico’s prophecy was to be believed, they both had a one in four chance of dying, stopping someone from killing, well, everyone one. 

None can live, unless that one dies. 

Nico didn’t know what scared her more, the prospect of dying, Karolina dying, or if their inaction somehow caused the whole world to implode. She didn’t even no how to do transfigure lizards, yet, her prophecy could change the wizarding world for ever. 

Awesome. 

“Nico,” Karolina shrieked when she saw her, waving wildly. Nico made her way over to where she was standing and Karolina practically picked her up as she hugged her. She was at least a half a foot taller than Nico. It was so annoying. 

“Hey Kar,” and despite her better judgment, she leaned into this hug, the scent lavender shampoo warm and comforting. Karolina was soft and warm, and she just wanted to melt. It was like as long as she was holding her, everything would be okay. 

(It was stupid, but…) 

“I missed you,” Karolina set Nico down, with a grin.

“I missed you, too.” Nio smiled, and it felt like the first time she had smiled in months. 

“Bye Dad,” Karolina gave her father a quick hug, not quite meeting his eyes, “Love you.”

“You, too,” If Frank noticed Karolina’s odd behavior, he was a much better actor than Nico gave him credit for. 

Karolina grabbed her trunk from her father, and headed towards the train, Nico, as always, following dutifully behind. 

“You and Frank-”

“It’s hard,” Karolina muttered, “Lying to him. Pluss I don’t know if he has been lying to me for almost 15 years.”

“You okay?” The question hung uncomfortably in the air, Karolina looked at Nico. 

“About what?” Karolina laugh humorlessly. “Me being a freak or my Dad…”

Karolina looked around at the crowds of excited students.

“Let’s find a compartment,” Karolina said quietly. 

They were able to find an empty one, rather quickly, and after the secured there luggage, Karolina did a quick locking spell on the door. 

“I figured you would want to see-” Karolina looked nervous. 

“You don’t have too,” Nico said, “I mean I believe you, you don’t have anything to prove-”

“I know that.” Karolina said, “It’s just, I need someone else to see, or I think I am going to go crazy.”

“I get that,” Nico nodded, “Besides, we should… We should know what we are dealing with.”

“Are you ready?” Karolina was looking at her with wide eyes, her blue eyes looking almost alien. 

“Yah.” Karolina nodded, and after double checking the door, shrugged off her jacket, leaving her in a T-shirt. She took a deep breath and then took off her bracelet. 

Nico wasn’t sure what she had been expecting but it was not that.

Colors started to form on Karolina’s exposed hands first, and then travel up her arms as if being painted by an invisible paint brush, electric pastels, fading from pink to orange to yellow. 

It was beautiful. 

It was terrifying. 

There was no denying it, if Nico was the Seer in her prophecy (maybe she wasn’t, so what if seers appeared once every three generations, sometimes even less often, their could be another seer running around they didn’t know about,) then Karolina had to be the Child of Light. 

It was like nothing she had ever seen before. 

As quickly as it had started, it stopped, and Karolina snapped the bracelet back in place, and then unlocked the door.

“I can only do that for so long…” Karolina muttered as an explanation, “and people will start to get suspicious if the compartment stayed locked for much longer.”

“Yah.” Nico felt vaguely dizzy.

“I haven’t tried using magic when I am,”Karolina sat next to Nico, “When I am like that.”

“What do you think will happen?”

“I think,” Karolina looked out the window, and started playing with her bracelet, “I think it will be easier, without the bracelet. I think this, it's, well… Its suppressing everything, my magic too.”

“You okay?” Nico asked.

“Yes,” Karolina answered, before pausing, “No. You?”

“Yes and no, too.” Nico replied with a ghost of a smile. 

“Have you…” The unasked question that Nico had been waiting for. 

“No new prophecy,” Nico shrugged, “I tried to to read the tarot cards, and my tea leaves, and Amy’s tea leaves, come to that. I am no better at any of it than I was before…”

Karolina nodded, looking at her hands. Nico started to chip away at the black nail polish on her thumb.

“I think we should tell the other’s about... the Pride kids” Karolina said, “About your prophecy, and my… lights.”

“Why?” Fear prickled underneath her skin. It was one thing Karolina knowing, and Nico knowing, but Gert, Chase, Molly, Amy and Alex? 

It would become so real, so horribly real. 

“You know why.” Karolina looked up from her hands, “Something is happening, and we can’t figure everything out on our own-”

“We could try,” Nico’s voice was fiercer than she meant it to be. Karolina looked at her, and for one brief moment, Nico was sure that she could read her mind, that she would know every memory that had been tangled in her brain all summer. 

How hard it was, lying to everyone. 

How she hadn’t slept, how she wasn’t just haunted by the prophecy, but her own memories. 

How much she had missed Karolina. 

(Nico almost wished she could; would it be so bad if Karolina was the one who new all of her secrets?)

“We don’t even have somewhere to tell them all,” Nico knew her voice was petulant, but she couldn’t bring herself to care, “Outside the Hogwarts Express, there is exactly nowhere we can be sure to be uninterrupted-”

“What if I found somewhere?” Karolina shot back, “Somewhere where we can tell everyone, Alex and Amy too, and I can practice my lights. What then?”

Before Nico could respond, the door to their compartment opened up. 

It was Gert, Chase and Molly, with huge smiles on their faces. 

Karolina shot her a look, and whispered “saved by the bell” in her ear (causing an unwelcome shock to travel down her spine), before she stood up to give the others hugs, say hello, and enquire how everyone’s summer had been so far. 

\-----

The train ride went like the almost a dozen train rides before. They ate too many pumpkin pasties, and Nico played with Karolina’s hair while Karolina played with Lucy, and the rest played round after round of Exploding Snap and Wizard’s Chess. 

Nico was glad she could use magic again, after being barred from it all summer. She started changing the color of Karolina’s hair (with her permission of course), turning one strand from pink to purple to orange and back again. 

Gert talked at length and Chase stared at her rather moonily (apparently Chase’s default was golden retriever). Karolina was quiet, quieter even than she normally was. Nico knew what that meant; Karolina was going to find somewhere for them all to meet, if she hadn’t figured out a place already. 

Nico found herself trying to catch Karolina’s eye in the carriage ride to the Castle, but Kar didn’t seem to notice; she was staring at the window, her eyes narrowed in that way they always got when Kar was determined to solve a problem (whether that be a trick maneuver on her move, spell in transfiguration, or a way to extract pus from a plant that was actively trying to kill her).   
If Kar wanted to she could solve any problem, so it was only a matter of time before Karolina solved the puzzle of where to meet.

Her secret. Their secret, wasn’t going to be just theirs for much longer.

Nico was right, the next morning, after an evening of too much rich food, and terrified first years getting sorted into their houses, Karolina stole her away to take a walk around the lake. As soon as they were out of earshot of the student body, gossiping about class schedules and summer breaks, Kar told her excitedly that she knew where they could meet. 

“How quickly people forget.” Karolina elated, with an annoyingly knowing grin. 

“Forget what?” Nico said, yawning (it was too early for subtly). 

“Their history,” Karolina said in a way that should have ended with a ‘duh’, “Twenty years ago, a room was important in the Battle of Hogwarts, in winning the whole war.”

“Karolina-”

“I know where we I can practice, where we can meet with the others, everything.”

“Kar, I don’t understand-”

“The Room of Requirements,” Karolina grinned even wider, “Come on, I’ll show you.” 

They hadn’t even got to the lake yet, and they turned straight around to go back inside the Castle. Karolina marched them to the third floor, and promptly told Nico to stand back. 

Nico was about to ask what was going on, after Karolina walked in front of the same patch of wall for the third time, when a door appeared. 

This was not completely unusual for Hogwarts, staircases routinely disappeared and reappeared, and subjects of portraits would routinely vanish for weeks at a time, only to return with a summer tan, and tales of Fiji. Still, Nico was pretty sure she had never seen entire rooms appear and disappear. 

“Ladies first,” Karolina, held her hand out in an exaggerated gesture, and Nico rolled her eyes.

“Whatever,” Nico muttered, feeling a bit hot under the collar, “We are both ladies but-”

Nico opened the door. 

“This is…” It was unlike anything she had ever seen at Hogwarts. It was a large room, stone floors and walls with no windows. The walls were lined with bookshelves, and in the center was a huge table with a half a dozen chairs. The table had a collection of vials and herbs to make a thousand different potions, not to mention a half dozen live plants in pots. 

“Perfect.” Karolina finished her sentence, “You can make it into anything you want. I wanted somewhere we could practice, and research-”

Nico walked to the bookshelves and there were books on everything from Seer’s to Divination to magical phenomenon. 

“The Room of Requirements,” Karolina said, “Next time I will include that you need things for divination. Crystal balls, and some books on Arithmancy. Runes, we will need some translations as well-”

“So you just-”

“Anything you want,” Karolina grinned, and Nico turned away. This place was perfect, which meant-

“I can tell everyone to meet us here tonight-” Karolina smiled, “No reason to put it off right?”

“Right.” Nico forced a smile on her face. 

“Right,” Karolina echoed back.

\----

Nico had trouble sitting through her classes the rest of the day. Her secret, there secret, was going to belong to the group, to be discussed and debated. 

What if everyone thought Nico was a freak? What if someone thought Karolina should be prodded and poked at St. Mungo’s (over Nico’s dead body, but that was a whole other issue)?

Too soon for Nico’s taste, everyone was rounded up, all marching into the Room of Requirements, after dinner that night. 

Everyone was exploring the room at first, picking up books from the shelves, or examining the plants until one of them almost bit off Chase's nose. 

They didn’t look over to the two of them until Karolina cleared her throat. 

“We have something we have to tell you,” Karolina said, before she continued talking Nico reached out and took her hand. 

“Finally,” Amy muttered, throwing a knowing look over to Alex, who nodded approvingly. 

“It’s not that,” Nico said quickly.

“Not what?” Karolina said, tilting her head, still holding Nico’s hand. 

Nico ignored her question and instead launched into what happened last term. The prophecy, in its entirety, and the fact that Nico was not only a Seer, but very likely destined to be involved with saving the entire world from wizards trying to find eternal life. 

Nico told them this and to her surprise everyone seemed to believe her; Gert asked about a half dozen questions, and Amy was remarkably quiet, but still. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but she felt a weight lift off her, sharing the burden, even a little bit. 

“The seer,” Amy said slowly, “In the prophecy. That’s you.”

“Yah,” Nico nodded, looking at Karolina, “We think so.”

“We need your help,” Karolina said.

“With what?” Alex said carefully.

“Solving the prophecy,” Nico looked down, “We are named in it, so we need to figure out who is trying to be immortal, and stop them from killing everyone-”

“We?” Molly asked, her eye’s narrowing, “Who-”

“I have something to tell you,” Karolina mumbled, “Too-”

Karolina remained silent, while everyone looked at her expectantly. 

“Kar-”

“I don’t know how to explain.” Karolina said quietly, looking over at Nico, panicked. 

“Just show them,” Nico said, squeezing her hand before dropping it.

“Yah,” Karolina nodded, “Okay.”

Karolina took off her bracelet. 

Nico was pretty sure she was never going to get used to that. Without any windows, the pinks and yellows of Kar’s skin reflected against the stone. It was like watching the Aurora Borealis in a library, it was indescribable. 

“So you…” Alex started circling her like she was a rather interesting science experiment. 

“The Child of Light,” Amy said, to no one in particular, “That’s got to be her right?”

“I glow yah.” Karolina said, stating the obvious, and avoiding everyone’s gaze. Nico didn’t blame her, Amy’s mouth was gapping, Chase and Molly had jumped back like she might burn her, and Gert had sat down at the nearby table, and wouldn’t look at anyone. 

“How in the world…” 

“She’s part Veela,” Nico piped up from the corner, trying to be helpful, “1/8th. We couldn’t find any correlation, but maybe you have read something different-” 

“I don’t think that would explain it,” Alex muttered, mostly to himself, “Nothing I have read about Veela says anything like this-”

“You’re part Veela.” Chase looked dumbfounded. Nico remembered his offhand comment (a stupid flirting), from last year; it turned out that Chase had been right on the money. Stranger things had happened, Nico supposed. 

“Frank isn’t my birth father,” Karolina said quietly, not meeting anyone’s eyes, “It’s a long story.”

“Shit,” Nico cringed, feeling remarkably stupid, “I am sorry I said-”

“It’s fine,” Karolina threw her a tight smile, “I would have to have told everyone… eventually.”

“Sorry,” Nico repeated, feeling like the worst friend in the entire world. 

“Part Veela,” Amy laughed, her face finally going back to normal “And you glow, that’s some genetics you have girlie-”

“It’s not just glowing though,” Karolina said, “That’s part of why I wanted to show you all-”

“She thinks she might have power’s too,” Nico said, “Like maybe if she performed spells like this…It would be...”

“It is powerful,” Karolina finished her sentence, “Too powerful-”

“We get it,” Gert shoved at the books in front of her, “Perfect Karolina, she’s a Veela who glows.”

No one met Gert’s eye, including Nico, who instead tried to gage Karolina’s reaction. Usually she was so good at brushing off Gert’s insults. Gert had been nicer, since Chase stopped pursuing Karolina, but Nico had noticed she still said backhanded compliments and snarked at Karolina more than any of the other Pride Kids.

Nico knew that Gert was not being malicious, but Nico knew Karolina, she knew it bothered her, especially when the world at large valued her for her beauty above all else. Especially with the pressure that had been weighing down on her (on Nico too), all summer.

Still, Nico expected Karolina to brush it off, for the good of the group. After All they had hardly even discussed the prophecy and what it could mean. Karolina wanted input from the others, that’s why she wanted to tell them. She had already, brushed away thousands of insults for the good of the group, after all. Always, for the good of the group. 

Karolina though, it seemed, was done playing by the script she had so carefully cultivated for herself. 

“I’m right here.” Karolina didn’t look chagrined or bemused or even hurt. She looked pissed, as she clasped her bracelet back on her arm. “Can you stop putting me down for ten seconds, because you know I won’t call you out.”

“That’s not-” Gert spluttered.

“You have either shut me out or treated me like shit or deigned to treat me like a human for three years. I am done with it.”

“I haven’t-”

“Yes you have,” Karolina said, “I am not finished.”

Nico had to stop herself from laughing. 

“It’s not my fault I look like this,” Karolina growled, “And if you didn’t think about just yourself for two seconds you would realize I have in the past year found out the man I thought was my father isn’t, I glow which very well could be dangerous to me or everyone around me, and I am probably named in a prophecy that could mean either me or my best friend dies. Or as you put it, ‘perfect’.”

Gert looked flabbergasted and close to tears. 

“Stop that,” Karolina muttered, turning her head, “I am not going to feel bad for you. I refuse too, actually.”

“Damn,” Amy leans over to whisper to Alex, though Nico can hear it too, “Too bad she’s part Veela, because I think she would not be a half bad Slytherin.”

“Well,” Chase said, with a panicked smile, “Why don’t we meet up tomorrow. To do that research, of these… Umm… New developments... same time, after everyone has…”

“Good plan,” Nico said quickly, not sure when she became the person keeping the peace instead of the person rocking the boat, usually violently. 

“Fine.” Karolina muttered, she grabbed her book bag, and kissed Nico on the cheek, and left without saying goodbye to anyone else. 

(Nico was more than a little floored, not only at Karolina’s dramatic exit, but since when were cheek kisses, normal? Not that she was complaining, she definitely could get used to them-)

Gert left soon after, mumbling both ‘sorry’ and ‘bye’ to no one in particular, and Chase was not far behind. Amy and Alex had their heads together, low, probably going over strategy that was above the rest of their heads, and Nico figured they would stay in the Room of Requirements, for longer than the rest (stupid prefects, and their stupid late curfews).

That just left Molly and Nico to make there way back, together. Nico and Molly weren’t particularly close, Karolina was the one who would talk about crushes and boys and giggle, not Nico (which was ironic because Nico actually liked boys, and Karolina so, so didn’t). So they walked in a mostly awkward silence, down the hall, until their paths would diverge, Nico heading up to the Ravenclaw tower, and Molly to the Gryffindor one. Could go their separate ways. 

“I know who the orphan is.” Molly said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, “In your prophecy.”

It was like ice was injected in her veins. 

“Who-”

“Me.” Molly said, her voice calm and her chin up defiantly, “The orphan is me.”

\-----

Karolina wasn’t at breakfast the following morning. Nico grabbed some bacon and a muffin, before walking out of the Great Hall, to the grounds. Nico was surprised to find her by the lake.

“Bacon?” Nico said, by way of greeting, as she flopped down beside her.

“Sure,” Karolina said, she smoothed out her skirt nervously, “I am not avoiding you, I just-”

“No explanation needed.” Nico said. 

“Cool,” Karolina smiled. 

They sat like that for a little bit; Nico didn’t want to break the silence, which was so comfortable and comforting. She didn’t like keeping things from Karolina, though (when she didn’t have to). 

“Molly is the orphan,” Nico said. To her surprise Karolina didn’t seem at all surprised. 

“Yah,” Karolina said, “Molly told me about her parents last year. I should I have told you, I’m sorry-”

“No I’m sorry,” Nico said, “Mouthing off about you being a Veela.”

“Let’s call it even,” Karolina grinned.

“Sure,” Nico said, with a ghost of smile, “Whatever you want..”

“But orphans aren't like Seer’s,” Karolina said, “Maybe someone else...”

“Who else?” Nico muttered, “This isn’t like during the wizarding war, orphans aren't a dime a dozen anymore. It can’t be a coincidence that she knows at least two out of the four...”

“I guess,” Karolina took a deep breath, “Shit, I hadn’t thought about it like that.”

“Yah.”

“Shit,” Karolina muttered, “Not Molly…”

They sat in silence for a moment. Molly being one of the four was a special sort of awful. Molly was kind, she never said a mean word to anyone. She was the best of what Gryffindor had to offer, she was loyal, and strong, but she always used that strength to help those without power. 

Nico saw a fifth year Ravenclaw try and hex a Slytherin first year, and before she could intervene, Molly had already rounded the corner, she didn’t even raise her wand, she just pushed the fifth year, hard, and he was so shocked, he just picked himself up and ran away. 

Molly, whose parents died when she was five, who had lived at an orphanage for a year before she was adopted by the Yorkes. Molly who had to overcome so much, and who was, despite of it all, unequivocally good. 

Molly was special, Molly didn’t deserve to have a death warrant hanging around her neck for the rest of her life. 

Karolina didn’t either. 

Even she didn’t deserve it, Nico realized, for all of her own faults (and she knew she had more than a few). 

No one deserved this.

They sat in silence for a few moments, before Nico could work up the nerve to ask, the other thing she had been worried about. 

“So you and Gert…”

“We had a chat,” Karolina said, “Early this morning. She tracked me down. It was good. It was needed.”

“So you two won’t…”

“Go nuclear again?” Karolina finished her unasked question, “No you all should be safe.”

“It was kind of fun to watch actually.”

“How on earth-” Karolina looked gobsmacked. 

“You always turn the other cheek,” Nico shrugged, “It was kind of fun to see you fight back.”

“I must have learned that from someone…” Karolina trailed off, before throwing Nico a grin. 

“Gert probably,” Nico repplied, seriously, and Karolina laughed so hard she was gasping, and for a second everything was okay.

Nico reached out and took Karolina’s hand. 

\----

They come up with a routine of sorts, three times a week the team met up into the Room of Requirements (which was evolving to look like a cross between a common room, library and defense against the dark arts classroom, with an ever changing line up of books, plants and supplies). Alex and Amy were Prefects and Karolina had Quidditch practice, so figuring out a meeting time was a bit precarious, but they managed to make it work. 

“You are a seer,” Amy said, during one of their first meetings. 

“Yes,” Nico said, a bit confused (she had thought they had already covered this). 

“That is a big fucking deal.” 

“I know.” Nico muttered “I have only had the one prophecy, though-”

“Still,” Amy’s eyes were huge. 

“I guess.” 

“We will figure this out,” Amy said seriously, “Okay?” 

“Yah,” Nico nodded, trying to blink back tears “Okay.”

Nico and Amy focused their research on Seer’s and all thing prophecy. Alex, with the help of Molly and Chase, focused on the mechanics of immortality. Gert studied all the things that could make a teenage girl glow (Nico had a suspicion that Gert was trying to make amends). 

Karolina, she practiced staying conscious with her powers, while the rest of them researched, and casting spells while bright pink. 

It was frustrating, all the research, like trying to free something from a block of ice, with a pick ax, only to find out it was the wrong block of ice the whole time. Still they were making some progress. 

Karolina could cast more difficult spells when in her glowy form, though not exceedingly so. Karolina described wearing the bracelet as dampening everything, while without it, she could finally cast spells like without so much difficulty, just like everyone else. 

Everyone else's progress was a little bit more slow going, Alex and Molly and Chase knew all about Horcruxes, Unicorns blood, and the Sorcerer’s stone now, but they had no idea who would want to use any of these, possibly ending the world in the process. 

Nico and Amy practice divination together, and researched all the great Seer’s of history, but the further they got in the research, the more distressing it became. Seer’s tended to live short, vibrant, tragic lives. Not exactly comforting, and to add insult to injury, Nico had not had another premonition, (she didn’t tell anyone, not even Amy or Karolina, that she hoped that she would have another prophecy that would disprove the first, that fate had changed, and they could all stop trying to save the world, and go back to being teenagers). 

Gert, poor Gert, was the most frustrated. There was nothing, from curses to potions gone wrong, that explained how Karolina could be perfectly healthy, while her true form was, as Molly called it, “rainbow brite.”

The term moved along, like it always did, slowly, at first, but before she knew it, everyone was stressed about midterms, gossiping about dates for going to Hogsmeade, and the likelihood of Hufflepuff winning the house cup this year (very important to Karolina, who Nico thought must spend more time on the Quidditch Pitch then off it). 

Karolina and Nico’s birthday was a whirlwind, like usual, with a Hufflepuff v. Slytherin game and two midterms as well. Still they managed to exchange gifts and spend a morning together. 

“We got each other the same thing,” Karolina laughed when they opened their presents (at the same time, racing to see who could unwrap the fastest). 

“No they are different-” Nico said, as she looked down. They both had gotten each other a ring. Nico got Karolina one that was thin and gold with a square rose quartz stone to match the hair clip from last christmas, while Nico got one with a silver band with a large stone, an opal, she thought. 

“Basically,” Karolina said, “great minds, I suppose.”

“Yah,” Nico grinned, “Great minds. It’s perfect, thank you”

Karolina leaned over and pecked Nico on the cheek, and she hoped she wasn’t blushing too badly. She didn’t kiss her or hold her hand in front of anyone but the Pride Kids (neither of them did), but Nico craved it, the quiet intimacy of it. She knew it wasn’t healthy, but it made it easier to pretend that they were… more than they were. 

The thing was, a lot of people seemed to think that they were… well… more than they were. After their birthday, Nico noticed less people openly gawping at Karolina, which she figured was people just getting used to her (only took four years, but whatever), and girls who usually came to giggle by Karolina when they were studying, took one look at Nico before turning on their heel disappointed. 

A few people even asked Nico if it was okay to ask Karolina out, which was, weird to say the least. 

“Why is everyone asking me,” Nico said, after this had happened for the third time, “If it’s okay to ask you out?”

“Everyone thinks we’re dating,” Karolina looked at Nico like this was not new information, “I thought you knew-”

“Everyone…” Nico repeated, she knew a couple people might have gotten the wrong idea, but.. “But why…”.

“Think about it.” Karolina looked down at her hands, “Even though you don’t hold my hand in public anymore, which I get by the way. We are getting older, and it is easy for people to think… Well people already think...”

Karolina trailed off.

“We spend almost all our time together,” Karolina continued, “And we disappear for hours at a time at the same time, neither of us have dated anyone else in a year, or me ever. We both wear rings that we got each other for our birthday this year. You spend a lot of time braiding my hair. Also.”

Karolina’s face was bright pink. 

“Right,” Nico felt supremely stupid. So much for being slick, or good at hiding her feelings. 

“I haven’t told anyone that we were together, but…”

“But?” 

“I figured it would be easier to sneak out of my dorm if everyone just thought I was sneaking out-”

 

“To see me,” Nico realized. 

 

“Yah.” Karolina nodded her eyes solom, “Which is hardly a lie too, which is nice. I mean I am seeing you, just not like… Yah.”

“Yah,” Nico swallowed, “I guess it’s a good idea.”

“We can just act like we usually do,” Karolina said brightly.

“Cool,” It could be cool, Nico could make it cool.

“Cool.”

It was so not going to be cool. 

\-----

They agreed, they would act like a couple and the Pride Kids agreed to go along with it too, if anyone asked (Nico heard Amy mutter something about playing with fire, under her breath, but she thankfully, said nothing else on the matter). It was a good idea, as far as their cover stories went, with the added bonus, that they wouldn’t have to deal with offers of dates (though this was mostly for Karolina’s benefit, no one had asked her out after Alex). 

It didn’t change much at first. They acted like they always had, it wasn’t until a week into there fake dating, that Nico realized she was still not holding Karolina’s hand in public, and she could. 

(This was such a slippery slope, but Nico couldn’t bring herself to care). 

So she reached out for her hand as they walked into Great Hall, trying to control the blush on her own cheeks. 

“Everyone’s staring.” Karolina said, for some reason, confused; then realization dawns on her face, “You’re holding my hand.”

“Everyone assumed,” Nico muttered, and then she got on her toes, and kissed Karolina’s cheek. She heard audible gasps, “Now they know.”

Karolina blushed scarlet. At least Nico was in good company. 

“Besides they aren't staring at me,” Nico said, surveying the Great Hall; people took in Nico’s dark eyeliner, and spiked headband, before their eyes flitted back to Karolina, who, lit up a room with or without her bracelet on. 

“I don’t know why people stare at me,” Karolina said, looking straight in Nico’s eyes, not dropping Nico’s hand, “When I am standing next to you.”

“Shut up.” Not one of Nico’s best retorts, in all honesty, but she was having trouble breathing. 

“I’m serious,” Karolina slightly tugged on Nico’s hand, as they walked by Hufflepuff table, where she grabbed two bananas and muffins and a quart of pumpkin juice, stuffing it in her book bag, waving at her housemates, all without dropping her hand. 

“It almost sounds like a line,” Nico said, letting herself be dragged back out of the Great Hall and onto the grounds. 

(It was like as soon as she stepped outside, she could breath again; in no short part because of all the attention that ranged from over excited support to vicious jealousy. Positive or negative, the attention was intense.) 

“A line?” Karolina looked concerned, and Nico could count all of her freckles from here, “No line, your beautiful, so beautiful.”

She didn’t say it like Alex had, like it could get him something, like it was something that was written in an instruction manual on how to get the girl. Karolina said it like it was an indisputable fact, one she was concerned that Nico didn’t know, because how could she not know something as surely true as the earth being round or the sun rises in the east.

Nico was sure if she didn’t take the right step, she would trip and fall down a rabbit hole she would never come back from. 

“You get why people look at you though,” Nico muffled, suddenly uncomfortable with Karolina’s very direct gaze, “I mean-” 

“I get why,” Karolina as she threw her hair over her shoulder distractedly, “I am tall and blonde and my face is symmetrical I guess-”

“Very symmetrical,” Nico said with faux seriousness, wanting to make this all a joke (it didn’t feel like a joke), “Don’t sell yourself short.”

 

“I’m part Veela, so people stare,” Karolina took a shaky breath, “but they don’t see me.” 

Nico kept walking, increasing her pace, as though she could outrun this conversation, (she didn’t drop Karolina’s hand, though). 

“It’s like you are the only person who sees me,” Karolina said softly, she stopped, and they were on the bank of the lake, and Nico wasn’t sure how that happened, “Does that make any sense?”

“Yes.” Nico said letting out a shaky breath. 

“Oh.”

“You are the only one who sees me too,” Nico couldn’t find her words, “That’s how it feels- it’s not just you.” 

“Good,” Karolina took a deep breath, before her eyes flitted to the lake, “I don’t know how to explain it… But if I was the only one who felt… It would be awfully lonely. Does that make sense?”

“Yah,” Nico nodded, suppressing the urge to kiss Karolina and never stop, “It makes sense.” 

\-----

They stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas that year. It just made sense. 

The break went by much too fast for Nico, it was a whirlwind of studying about arithmancy and dark magic, while watching Karolina from the corner of her eye, as she glittered. They did a Secret Santa exchange again, and they ate too much turkey. The mood was more somber this year, no matter what they did, Nico’s prophecy always hung in the background, hard to ignore, even if they wanted to. 

The research was still slow going, but it’s results were becoming darker and darker. They had started including dark wizard and wizard groups in there research, trying to figure out who would want immortality, and was willing to risk a high death count (potentially, if Nico’s prophecy was correct, the entire wizarding world). This lead them to wizard supremacists, and murders and rapists. Wizards who tortured, who used magic to bring so much darkness into the world, instead of light. 

It was hitting Amy particularly hard. She was starting to disappear for hours at a time, and she wasn’t even talking to Alex, who had always been her confidant. She was becoming irritable and quick to anger, and Nico was at a loss of what to do. What was there to do? The reality of what they were facing was sobering, and becoming more and more real, the more time they spent researching the dark underbelly of the wizarding world. 

Winter always melted into spring too slowly, but it always did. The days got longer, and Hufflepuff made it into the Quidditch finals, but they were beat by Ravenclaw, (Karolina was crushed) and Nico’s days seemed to be eaten up by studying, for her exams in the day, and at night, with the rest of the Pride Kids, studying dark arts, and magical accidents.

Everyone thought that Karolina and Nico were dating, which was fine, it was fine.

It seemed though, that Karolina’s more serious suitors didn’t seem to care that she had a girlfriend (a pretend girlfriend, just pretend). Karolina would tell her about these girls like it was funny, and Nico always nodded along, trying to keep her comments from becoming to snarky (and often failing). 

Karolina haunted her dreams, both waking and sleeping. It wasn’t all kisses (although those usually made appearance, becoming deeper and more intense with each passing day), but just getting to be with her, and not have to pretend that what she felt for her best friend, wasn’t the biggest, brightest, most earth shattering thing in her life.

She didn’t want it to be pretend, she wanted to be with Karolina, in every way possible. She didn’t know how to say it though, with things finally following some sort of order, routine if not normal, she didn’t know if she could take the risk. 

Sometimes Karolina would look at her, and she almost told her anyway, but the moment always passed, and Nico was always able to convince herself she would grow out of these feelings, until a moment just like it, arose again. 

\------

Gert, to everyone’s surprise (though surprise might be an understatement), had been keeping a dragon egg secret for almost two years, incubating it in her trunk, and then when it hatched letting it run free in the Forbidden Forest (she was sure that the Centaurs loved that).

To everyone's even greater surprise, the first person she decided to tell was Karolina. 

“I think she knew I would not start yelling,” Karolina said with her nose scrunched up. 

“You didn’t yell?”

“No I did,” Karolina said quickly, before amending, “A little. But she calmed me down pretty quick.”

“A dragon-” Nico shook her head in disbelief, “Have you seen it?” 

“No,” Karolina said, “Is it weird that I want too?” 

“Yes.” Nico laughed, more than a little exasperated, “Has anyone seen it, did she say-”

“Not yet.” Karolina said, “No one but Gert, yet.”

“What was Gert thinking?”

“You know her,” Karolina rolled her eyes, “Everyone’s a project, everything can be saved… Even a dragon. Apparently Old Lace-”

 

“Who?”

“The dragon,” Karolina said, like that was obvious. 

“Of course,” Nico rolled her eyes, “My mistake.”

“Old Lace was a really small egg,” Karolina continued, “The mother abandoned it, focused on the rest, Gert didn’t think that was right.”

“Shit,” Nico’s head was spinning “You almost sound like you admire her.”

“I do,” Karolina nodded absentmindedly, before throwing Nico a smile, “Don’t worry, I am not going to hide a dragon’s egg in my trunk. Lucy takes up enough of my attention.”

“That’s a relief,” Nico smiled, be for sobering, “How did Chase...”

“He’s,” Karolina looked away, “He’s upset. Naturally.”

It wasn’t about the dragon, not really (which exemplified just how weird there lives had gotten). It was what that would mean, what it had meant, since before Gert even heard the prophecy. 

“You know what this means,” Nico said quietly.

“The dragon child,” Karolina murmured, “I think we have our big four…”

“That makes it sound like Quidditch teams,” Nico let out a hollow laugh, “not…”

“Death sentences,” Karolina nodded, “Yah. Maybe not Molly though. There could be another orphan.”

“Yah,” Nico smiled, even though she knew it didn’t reach her eyes, “Maybe not Molly.”

“Maybe not you either,” Karolina looked away, “There could be another Seer. An old one, who has already had a good long life-”

“You know it’s me Kar.”

“Maybe not though,” Karolina voice was like tissue paper, it was like Nico could see straight through it.

“Sure Kar,” Nico said, “Maybe not, me.”

\-----

The heat, muggy and too hot for early summer, didn’t reach the Room of Requirements. It didn’t matter though, despite Molly’s cheerfulness and Karolina’s optimism, everyone was on edge. The combination of upcoming exams, and the nature of their research was putting everyone on edge. 

Amy especially. Nico gave her sister a furtive look, her sister had been quick to anger, quick to snap for months. Both she and Alex had tried to figure out why, but-

“Every single thing we have researched ends the same way,” Amy slammed the book shut, “People die. People are going to die.”

“Amy-” Alex said.

“No,” Amy’s voice was fierce, fiercer than Nico ever remembered her sister’s voice being, “The seer, the child of light, the orphan, the dragon child. Nico, Karolina, Gert and Molly. One of them is going to die. They are going to die, or we are all-”

“Maybe-” Karolina starts. 

“No,” Amy said, “No. I can’t do this. I have to go.”’ 

Nico got up to follow her, but Alex beat her to it, and she let him follow her instead. None of this was knew information, but… 

Something about her sister, who had told her everything would be okay, giving up. It was like lead was dropped in her stomach. Why were they fighting, Nico wondered, they didn’t even know who the wizards were they needed to sacrifice their lives to stop. It was useless, it was completely and totally useless-

“You okay?” Karolina asked, her eyes huge, “That was intense.”

“No.” Nico muttered, “My sister is right.”

“Come on,” Karolina almost had a smile on her face and it made Nico even more mad than before, “You don’t know that-”

“Yes I do,” Nico said, “One of us will die or we will all die. Nothing is going to be okay, ever.”

“Don’t you think we are going to have an after.” Karolina said, “Something to look forward too-”

Of course that’s what Nico wanted; before the prophecy she had dreams of being a professor at hogwarts, or even a master in Divination (that dream had a nasty sting of irony now). She pictured herself in a house with a family and Karolina always right near by teaching her kids to ride a broomstick (their kids, Nico knew now, she always dreamed that they were their kids). 

Those dreams were dashed, and had been; what was the point in dwelling on them? It just hurt to much. She was never going to have Karolina, never have the future she wanted, what was the point. 

“We don’t have a future.”

“How can you say that,” Karolina looked angry, “What is the point if we don’t-”

“What you going to save us all Karolina?” Nico started, and once she stopped, she couldn’t stop, “What are you going to charm your way out of unforgivable curses? I don’t think glowing is going to scary witches and wizards who murder children. These murderers aren't going to be Emily, or one of your other many admirers, who I think even Chase could outmaneuver.” 

“I just…” Karolina shook her head, and Nico’s heart sunk; she was angry but taking it out on Karolina was a new low, “Never mind.” 

“Karolina-”

“No,” Karolina’s cheeks were the color of merlot, “I got it, loud and clear. I am a freak, and not even a very useful one, which is just peachy-” 

“I am upset, I am just-,” Nico grimaced, “Shit, I always do this.” 

“It’s fine,” Karolina’s hands gesture wildly, “I am just glad I know what you think of me.”

“Karolina.” Nico closed her eyes, “Karolina wait.”

“I am just going for a walk,” Karolina threw the words over her shoulder as she angrily grabbed at her book bag, “I think I can manage that without getting myself killed. Although you never know, based on what you think of me.”

“Kar.” 

Nico was left alone feeling worse than before. 

She tried to just go back to the Ravenclaw tower and study, but she couldn’t focus. She then tried to just go to bed, but she just tossed and turned. By midnight, she was just staring at the clock, waiting for morning to arrive. She had been doing this for almost two hours before she heard her name being hissed at her from across the room. 

“There’s someone at the door for you,” Rachel, her roomate, shoved at her shoulder, clearly agitated.

“Sorry Rachel.” 

Rachel went back to bed, mumbling about inconsideration and waking up the entire house. Nico went down the stairs, and was not expecting Chase to be standing in the middle of her common room, looking extremely uncomfortable. 

“Hey Nico.”

“What are you doing?” Nico hissed, “You are going to get detention for breaking curfew-”

“Karolina didn’t come back to the common room.”

“What do you mean,” Nico’s heart started beating faster, “it’s almost two in the morning-”

“That’s why I’m here.” Chase brows furrowed. “I already looked everywhere I could think of, but I thought, maybe she was with you…”

“No.” Nico said, “She’s not.”

“Do you know where…”

“No, maybe.” Nico amended, “Go back to Hufflepuff. I’ll find Karolina.”

“I am sorry about this,” Chase really did look sorry. 

“No, this one’s my fault,” Nico promised, “100 percent.” 

Nico knew the first thing she had to do was go to the, Room of Requirements. If it could conjure up books on werewolves, and rare potion ingredients, it could find Karolina… Right?

“I need to find Karolina, I need to find Karolina.” Nico whispered to herself, trying to block out any other thoughts, (if she was caught, she was going to have detention for the rest of the school year). 

The door appeared, and when she opened it, it was not the expansive room she was used to, but small and dingy, the size of a broom closet. There was a small table, like the one next to her bed at home, with a piece of dirty parchment folded.

“What in the world,” Nico muttered to herself as she picked it up, and then she read what was scrawled on the top, “The Marauders Map.”

She opened it up to find the most incredible map of Hogwarts, little feet with little script of who was was where. Most everyone was where they were supposed to be, not moving in their common rooms. 

Now she just needed to find-

There, Karolina Dean, her name in neat cursive right on the yellowing parchment. 

“Thank you,” Nico grinned, pocketing the map. This could serve to be very, very useful. Now she just had to get Karolina back, in one piece. 

\---

Nico was almost caught three times (the map made it so much easier to know when she was about to be caught, and hide in a tapestry), but she managed to make it to Kar in about 45 minutes. 

Karolina was by the edge of the lake, though closer to where the Hogwarts Express platform was, then where the castle was, which explained why no one had found her yet. 

She had changed out of her uniform and was now what must be her pajamas, a soft black dress that looked like an oversized t-shirt, though thankfully (for Nico’s own sake) it ended right above Kar’s knee. There was her abandoned broom next to her on the shore, she probably had flown until even the Prefects and professors went to bed, before she landed. 

Karolina was swaying to music that could only be in her head, and there was a bottle in her hand. 

“Karolina.” Nico whispered, she had to call her name three more times before she would turn.

“Nico,” Karolina didn’t look too surprised, which was funny in its own right. Like Kar knew it was a possibility that Nico would stroll on by at 2 AM, “What are you doing here?”

“What do you think?” Nico shook her head in disbelief, “Let’s go.”

“I’m good thanks,” Karolina said, taking another swig, the label charmed to look like a real fire was raging under the word ‘‘Ogden’s’. 

“Who gave you fire whiskey?” Nico asked, “You’re fifteen.”

Sure people would sometimes serve third and fourth years one or two butter beers at the Three broomsticks, but this was just ridiculous. 

“People just give me things,” Karolina slurred, “Sometimes. Usually I don’t ask.”

Nico reached for the whiskey but she lurched away.

“Of course they just give things to you,” Nico groaned, “Who was it and how many times have they asked you out?” 

“You sound just like Gert,” Karolina sneered, and a sneer looked alien on her face. 

“Well she is not always wrong is she?” 

“Whatever,” and now Karolina was honest to God pouting. “She also is hiding a dragon in her trunk; how much do you really want me to be emu… ema...emulating her anyways.” 

“Real mature Kar.”

Karolina didn’t say anything, she just glared. 

“Come on Karolina we are going,” Nico said, but instead of responding, Karolina just inched closer and closer to the lake. 

“Maybe I want to go for a swim,” Karolina threw back, “What’s wrong about that?”

“You are drunk,” Nico rolled her eyes,“You are going to drown.” 

“Am not,” Karolina kicked at the dirt, her feet bare. Nico hoped she hadn’t lost her shoes, that was going to make getting Karolina to walk back with her a lot harder than she had hoped for. 

“Great argument,” Nico’s patience was quickly dwindling “Just stop being difficult and sit by me.”

“Fine,” Karolina muttered. 

“And give me the fire whiskey,” Nico continued, and Karolina didn’t look at her as she relinquished the glass bottle with smudges all up the side. Nico shook her head, it was almost half gone, Kar was going to have a hell of a headache tomorrow. 

Nico took a sip, and the drink lived up to its name, burning her throat, before she turned the bottle over and let it pore onto the ground.

“Jennifer will be pissed,” Karolina said dully. 

“Jennifer, the 7th year in Ravenclaw?” Nico hadn’t even realized her housemate had been circling Karolina. She always liked Jennifer. 

Fuck you, Jennifer. 

“She said we should share the bottle sometime,” Karolina said, playing with the hem of her skirt, “I think that’s why she gave it to me.”

“Well now I am even happier I got rid of it,” Nico crossed her arms. 

“Why do you care?”

“She’s too old for you.” Nico wasn’t wrong, Jennifer was eighteen, way to old. That wasn’t the only reason why she was pissed, but Karolina didn’t need to know that. 

“Whatever.”

“Get a new line-”

“There’s always a reason,” It was Karolina’s words were rusted over; it was the most cynical she had ever heard her best friend, “Why you don’t like the girls interested in me. There not very good reasons though.”

Karolina was staring at her with cloudy eyes, but Nico felt her words like a sword stuck in her side.

“Yah well-” Nico muttered, “We are supposed to dating. They shouldn’t… They should know better…”

“Say what you mean,” Karolina’s voice was breaking, “For once.” 

“Let’s go inside,” Nico couldn’t have this conversation, right now, “I don’t want you to get in trouble. “

“You don’t have to take care of me,” Karolina muttered petulantly. “I am not a child-”

“You are 15-” 

“So are you!” Karolina screamed “Stop treating me like some little kid-”

“You take care of me and I take care of you,” Nico said, her voice remarkably steady, “That’s how this is supposed to work-”

“Why do you get to decide how this works,” Karolina started walking toward the water, “You get to decide everything don’t you-” 

Karolina walked farther into the water, the green splashing around her ankles, her head turned away from Nico. 

“Kar-”

“I am just going to get my feet wet,” Karolina threw a look of disdain over her shoulder, “Am I allowed to do that?” 

“Karolina-” 

“You get to decide everything,” Karolina looked away again, “You already have decided we aren't going to survive this. What if I want to live? Does that matter. No, I am just the Veela, the living night light, too simple, too naive-”

“I am sorry” Nico’s voice was ragged, “For what I said. I didn’t mean it.” 

“It’s true,” Karolina murmured, “It’s vanity to think I could protect you, us.”

“It’s not vanity, it’s hope.”

“Just stand still for one moment,” Karolina said it quietly, like she was talking to herself, but then she took a step forward, and then another, until her calves were obscured by the murky water. 

“Karolina,” Nico said, but Karolina ignored her, “Shit.”

Nico ungracefully shucked off her shoes, and rushed into the water after Karolina. 

“Fuck the water is cold,” Nico groused.

Karolina was just standing there, easy as you please, when Nico managed to reach her, chin raised staring at the moon.

“Karolina,” Nico grabbed her elbow, trying to ignore the slimy feeling of moss (god she hoped it was moss) under her feet, and the water icy around her legs. 

“Why don’t you like the girls who like me?”

“You know why,” Nico’s not sure why she said it, she wasn’t actually sure if Karolina knew, or if Nico not so unlike the girls that surrounded her, whose affection was hardly noted by it’s object.

“No I don’t,” Karolina ran her hands through her hair, it was getting lighter; must be the extra Quidditch practices. 

“I can’t-”

“Okay.” Karolina closed her eyes and raised her face to the sky, like she could soak up a bit of the moonlight by sheer force of will.

“I don’t even see those girls,” Karolina said, eyes still closed, “When I fall asleep, and everything is dark like now, all I see is you.”

Karolina’s eyes opened and she looked at Nico and she couldn’t hide, from any of it. 

Karolina’s hands moved, and they rested in her hair, and she leaned in, their foreheads touching and she could hardly even breath. 

“Stop me,” Karolina whispered, and she could feel it on her lips, “If you want.”

“Your drunk,” It was the truth, but it wasn’t what she wanted to say (she was a good enough friend to know it was what she had to say.) 

“Should I try again when I am not?” Karolina leaned back, her face expressionless. 

“Yah” Nico nodded despite herself, “You should.” 

Karolina’s smile when she said that outshined everything around them, the stars, the moon, everything. 

Karolina outshined them all. 

\-----

Nico managed to get them both back to the castle in one piece. 

Nico wasn’t avoiding Karolina persay. They didn’t have classes together that day, and if she avoided the Great Hall, that was her own business.

She just didn’t want Karolina to tell her she was just drunk. She wasn’t sure how she would survive it. What if she didn’t remember it at all? That might be worse, alone with that memory. 

They all were supposed to meet in the Room of Requirements that afternoon, though. There was no avoiding her unless she didn’t show up at all (which would freak out everyone, especially after Karolina’s little lake adventure, the night before). 

She thought she was smart, going their early, so she could pretend to be busy when Karolina came in, but she had barely been there ten seconds when Karolina walked through the door. 

“Hey Nico,” Karolina tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and setting down her bag by a potted plant that looks vaguely like a hunched over, old woman. 

“Hey,” Nico said, looking at her feet, “How’s your head?”

“It’s still throbbing a bit,” Karolina said laughing breathlessly; she was walking closer to her, “I will admit.”

“Right.” Karolina was inches away from her now, and Nico was sure she was going to pass out.

“Guess what though?” Nico looked up at Karolina, she was pretty sure she couldn’t remember her full name right this second, let alone play twenty questions. 

“What.”

“We are both sober,” Karolina’s lips quirked up. 

“Yah.”

“I still want to kiss you,” Karolina whispered, and Nico couldn’t believe she said that out loud; even the night before, she just alluded-

“You do,” She sounded younger than she was, usure. 

“Yes.”

 

“Do you want to kiss me-” Now it was Karolina who sounded nervous, and unsure, and Nico couldn’t have that.

Nico leaned forward and up and kissed Karolina, and she quickly drowned in the feeling of it. It felt right and it felt good and she put her hands in Karolina’s hair and pulled her closer. Karolina made a small noise into her mouth, and she just wanted that to happen, again and again-

It was so much better than their first kiss, because she didn’t have to pull away, if she wanted to drown, she could drown. 

Then the door opened and they sprang apart. 

Chase and Gert looked perplexed.

“You too okay?”

“Yep,” Karolina nodded aggressively (Nico had not known that was possible, but evidendently)

“Your mouth,” Nico murmured to Karolina, who sheepishly wiped at her lips, that now we're now smudged with black.

“Don’t way a word,” Nico mumbled, as Gert sat next to her.

“Wasn’t gonna.” Gert smirked. 

Karolina and Nico pretended to make themselves busy, but Karolina kept looking up at Nico, and Nico kept trying to catch her eye. It was hard to keep a grin off her face. 

Maybe this was okay. Maybe they could hold onto each other as the world exploded. Maybe they weren’t being selfish-

Alex arrived next, and Amy a bit after. She looked nervous, really nervous, which was strange because Nico always thought her sister looked like she had it all figured out (even when she didn’t). 

“I need to tell you all something,” Amy took a deep breath, “I didn’t tell you all at first, because I wasn’t sure at first. I know who is trying to find eternal life.”

“You do?” Nico said.

“Who is it?” Gert piped. 

“Pride,” Amy voice was devoid of emotion; it was scarier than if she had screamed it, “Our parents are the ones doing this. I know this sounds crazy, but I have proof.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the cliffhanger, but I couldn’t resist! 
> 
> Next up we have Karolina’s POV and these crazy kids 5th year. I love reading y’all’s comments so please leave some (and kudos are also always appreciated).


	6. (year 5)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karolina and Nico's fifth year at Hogwarts.
> 
> Everything is going to hell in a hand basket. Pride is becoming more and more dangerous, there research isn't working fast enough. Also, Nico keeps kissing Karolina, and she has no idea what that means. 
> 
>  
> 
> *Rating Change: Canon Typical Violence, Mild (like really mild) Sexuality*

Nico was asleep on Karolina’s shoulder, and she could feel warm breath, in and out, against her neck. There hands were intertwined on Karolina’s lap; Nico was half draped on Karolina, her weight solid on her side. 

Nico was softer when she slept. There was none of the hard lines, none of the posturing. She just… Was. 

Karolina should have been happier than she was; after all she had Nico so close, and she was able to thread their fingers together and just…. Be near her. 

That’s all she had ever really wanted. To be near Nico. 

Karolina, though, she had way too much running through her head to be content.

Karolina stared through the window, the sky too bright and cloudless, the comforting sounds of the Hogwarts express rattling along the only sound as they barreled towards London, Nico warm beside her, pleasantly distracting. 

They were alone in the compartment, she wasn’t sure how that happened. Maybe the rest of the Pride kids (that nickname had taken on a rather bitter after taste), wanted to give them privacy, but Karolina had a feeling it was something different. She suspected that they wanted to pretend to be normal, to sit with their roommates and housemates, and pretend that nothing had changed; there was no pretending if they sat together, trying not to stare at each other, looking too young and too scared, and avoiding thinking about the strange ways they were all tied together. 

Karolina couldn’t pretend that she didn’t like having Nico to herself, though, or even that she even minded that Nico fell asleep (Nico was more cuddly asleep then she was awake, much to her delight). With Nico asleep it also gave her time to think (or obsess, maybe it was obsess), over what had happened less than a week ago. 

Amy found out who the dark wizards were, the one’s searching for eternal life, and who either Gert, Karolina, Molly or Nico would have to die, to stop them from ending the words.

Their parents, all of their parents, and their charity group, Pride. 

They were the reason, that Karolina couldn’t sleep at night.

Instead she just replayed, over and over again, the night a week before when everything changed. 

“I have been doing more research,” Amy had said, “On my own. One thing lead to another, soon I was stealing letters and opening lock boxes, and doing some slightly illegal things-”

“We get it,” Gert interrupted, “You are a regular badass, get to the part where you have proof our parents are going to cause the apocalypse.” 

“Pride is supposed to be supporting an orphanage for muggle’s, right? That’s the reason they meet up twice a year since we were kids.”

“Right,” Karolina said, her head spinning.

What did their parents have to do with any of this. Her father was not in Pride, he told her once he didn’t fit into that crowd; Karolina had thought he meant they were stuffy, too concerned with a pure blood legacy he had no real stake in (plus muggle borns were still treated in a kind of removed, patronizing, mostly well meaning way) . Could the reason he didn’t join her mother at Pride, really be something even more insidious? Could her mother really be trying to obtain everlasting life, no matter what the cost was? Her mother wasn’t someone who would make a Horcrux or drink unicorn blood, right?

Her mother was cold and harsh, but she wouldn’t actually hurt anyone right? 

“Here’s the thing, I couldn’t find the orphanage, I looked it up a few years ago because I was curious. My parents explained why, I mean they gave me an excuse, they said it was unplottable, like Hogwarts. I took them at their word I am so stupid-”

“This isn’t your fault,” Alex had assured; always calm, always measured, and not for the first time Karolina envied him.

“Right,” Amy had continued, “Right, anyways, I remembered how strange they had acted about the whole thing a few weeks ago. I knew it was a long shot, I was probably being paranoid, but we were getting nowhere in the research. We had no idea who these wizard’s could be, so I decided to look back into it-”

“What did you find?” Chase was holding on to the back of an arm chair so tight that his knuckles were white.

“The orphanage exists,” Amy said, her hands slightly raised, “But their children never come to Hogwarts-”

“But it’s a muggle orphanage right?” Nico ran a hand through her hair, “That makes sense then-”

“It isn’t though.”

“What do you mean?” Karolina asked. 

“They are all wizard orphans, not muggles,” Amy took a deep, uneven breath, “At first they were… Rescued, from the wizard war, but then they were taken from actual orphanages and group homes, muggle born children-”

“Why are they stealing wizard children?” Molly asked “How is it possible no one found out?” 

“I don’t know.”

“Wizards and witches have to come Hogwarts I thought-” Chase was starting to look like a ghost. 

“No technically; you can homeschool them, if you want,” Karolina read that in a Hogwarts, A History, but it was very uncommon-

“There’s more,” Amy said, “When I found all of these letters, all these notes, they kept referring to experiments.”

“Experiments?” Molly’s eyes were huge, “I don’t understand-”

“They are doing something to them,” Amy’s eyes were glassy, and Karolina had felt tears start to well in her own; she had never seen Amy cry, “Something bad-”

“What are they doing to those kids?”

Karolina looked around, she didn’t think she could feel the tips of her fingers, and she here her blood pumping, too fast, in her ears. 

Nico, right beside her, looked white as a sheet. 

“I don’t know,” Amy murmured, “I don’t know. But some of the kids aren't surviving it.”

Karolina sat down, feeling light headed. How could this get any worse? Amy kept talking, because of course she did.

“-And I don’t- I don’t think that they are supposed too.”

“We have to tell someone,” Gert said, color rising in her cheeks.

“Like the Aurors,” Alex said dully, “My parent’s run the department. And are experimenting and killing wizard children in their spare time it sounds like-”

“My mom is head of Magical Law enforcement, too,” Karolina said, “The daily prophet won’t believe a bunch of kids. Not worth the grief if the story turned out to be wrong. They would anger a lot of powerful witches and wizards-”

“What about our professors?” Molly said, “They would believe us right?”

“They are in the pockets of the Ministry of Magic. It’s like they don’t read their own history, like they don’t remember the Wizarding War-”

“Even if they might believe us, more likely they would call our parents. They would call us disturbed and throw us in St. Mungos-”

“What if your wrong,” Chase said suddenly, “Maybe your wrong, we don’t even know how this connects to the search for eternal life-”

“Would be a hell of a coincidence if it didn’t,” Alex said, “You read all the stuff I did, most of the spells, the enchantments, to create eternal life only work when someone dies in the process.”

“Their fruit will gain sight,” Karolina remembered. 

“What?” 

“Nico’s prophecy,” Karolina continued, “That’s one of the lines. We never focused on it. It could mean-”

“The children of the dark wizards and witches, the children of Pride,” Gert nodded, but she looked like she was in shock; Karolina could almost see the cogs grinding in her head, trying to figure something out that had no rational explanation, “But the Yorkes. They rescue magical animals for a living. They don’t even drink fire whiskey. Their so sweet and boring. You don’t murder children when you are sweet and boring-”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense-” Amy said, uncharacteristically softly. 

“None of this makes sense.” Chase’s voice was quiet, but there was a quality in it that Karolina had never heard before. It was scary, really scary.

Karolina had never thought that Chase looked like his father, but in this moment, she could see Victor in him. 

They were all silent for a moment.

“I know that this is hard,” Amy’s voice was quiet, almost icy; it should have been unnerving, but it was kind of comforting, in an odd way- it was closer to Amy’s everyday voice, Karolina realized, “Really hard. This is going to be the way we live now. We better accept it, or we are going to be in a world of hurt.”

Chase’s hand’s were still clenched, balled up into fists. 

Gert reached out and took his hand in hers. 

Chase exhaled, his whole body softened, and he was just Chase again, her friend. 

The same friend who fell asleep in the lobby, waiting for Nico to bring her back; Nico had woke him up, and sent him to bed. When Karolina woke up, Chase had left a jug of water and a headache potion by her doorway. 

Gert didn’t let go of his hand for a while. 

They looked through all the letters, all the notes and schematics Amy had commandeered, but Karolina had trouble remembering any of it, if she was honest with herself. They had all researched so much, for so long, for them to all find out so much all at once-

What did it say about Karolina that she wasn’t shocked her mother was involved in this (and Jonah, too, in all likelihood), Nico though-

She knew her best friend was trying to hide it, but she was devastated. Her parents, who actually acted like parents, if a little distant, a little reserved, were actually murders. 

It was such a betrayal. 

Nico had been in a daze the last few days of term, not unlike when she had her first prophecy. There was a vacancy in her eyes that Karolina was unsettled by- she just wanted Nico to be okay, she would do anything to make sure Nico was okay. 

They still hadn’t talked about what that kiss meant or what Karolina said when she was drunk off of fire whiskey by the lake. 

“All I see is you.” 

It had been the truth, but Nico hadn’t said it back. She just said to kiss her when they were both sober, so she did. 

Kissing Nico, really kissing her, was better than she had imagined it would be (and she had imagined it so many times, each one better than the last). 

What if that was all Nico wanted? A kiss, to see what it was like, just like the first time they kissed. It felt silly, stupid and selfish to bring it up now. What was she supposed to say?

“So I know you are still reeling from the realization that our parents are mass murderers, but do you like me-like me or just like me?”

She was mortified just thinking about it. 

Nico stirred against Karolina’s neck, and despite everything, it sent a warm feeling down her spine, to coil in her belly. 

She really was a mess for this girl.

“Hey sleepyhead,” She meant for it to sound like a joke, but her voice was a bit to high and shakey to sell it. 

Luckily Nico was still too drowsy to tease her about it. 

Nico stretched unconsciously brushing up against Karolina, even more. Karolina had to close her eyes and think about anything else (she was not very successful, unsurprisingly). 

“How long was I asleep?” 

Karolina eyebrows scrunched up, disturbed by the panic that crept into Nico’s voice.

“About two hours,” Karolina said, and Nico held onto there joined hands even harder; Karolina’s heart skipped a beat, “We will be arriving soon.”

“Shit.”

“What’s the matter?”

“I wasted my last hours with you asleep,” Nico said in a rush, turning away. The earnestness of the words, the desperation in her voice, Karolina didn’t know what to make of that.

Maybe she wasn’t alone, in what she felt…. Maybe….

Karolina had to shake away her own thoughts. 

Karolina knew better, that she shouldn’t hope, it was the hope that always lead to disappointment.

“You needed it,” Karolina said, trying to reassure, “You said you haven’t been sleeping.”

“Neither have you.”

“No neither have I,” Karolina agreed, her voice soft. 

She hadn’t but… Nico had lost her parents in one fell swoop, while Karolina had already lost her mother, long ago. 

“How am I going to survive this summer,” Nico’s voice rose, her breathing becoming rapid and irregular, “With murders-”

“You’ll be okay, you have to be okay,” Karolina’s voice broke. 

A second passed and then another, and Karolina didn’t look away, she couldn’t look away. She, silently, willed Nico good fortune and safety and everything. 

Everything. 

The moment ended as soon as it began, and Nico looked away. 

Nico nodded, and curled back to where she had fallen asleep, into the crook of Karolina’s neck. They sat in mostly silence for the rest of the ride to Kings Cross. When they did talk, it was mostly inconsequential. 

Before Karolina knew it, they had arrived. The chaos of exiting the train, of finding luggage and saying goodbye to friends and housemates; it all happened much to quickly, Karolina suddenly wished she could slow down time.

Much too soon, it was time for the two of them to say goodbye. They stood, frozen on the platform, as students and parents hurried by them, it was like they were a stone in a river.

“I’ll miss you,” Karolian said shifting her weight from one foot, to the other. 

“You have to write me, everyday.”

“Twice a day.”

“No need to be clingy,” Nico had a ghost of a smirk on her face. Karolina’s stomach flipped, but it almost felt good. 

“Nico-” Karolina grinned, feeling blush rise in her cheeks. 

“Can I…” Nico trailed off. 

“Can you?” Karolina prompted.

“Can I kiss you?” 

“Yes,” Karolina said, too quickly.

“I mean in front of everyone-”

“Everyone at Hogwarts thinks we're dating-”

“But we haven’t told our friends, our parents” Karolina said, mostly thinking out loud; she realized then and there she really didn’t care what anyone but Nico thought, and she hadn’t, for a long time, “You should kiss me.”

“Yah?” Nico looked shocked, even though it was her idea in the first place. 

“Yah.”

“Cool.”

Nico kissed her, Karolina had to lean down, and Nico lean up, on her toes, and they met in the middle. 

This kiss was relatively tame, at least compared to the kiss in the Room or Requirements, it wasn’t greedy, it was just soft, and warm, and Karolina wanted to melt into the feeling, into Nico. 

Like butter melting on toast. Like sitting by the Common Room fire with Lucy curled up on her lap, and a cup of tea beside her. Like arriving home after being away for years. 

(Home wasn’t the house with her parents, home was wherever Nico was). 

It was a goodbye kiss, Karolina realized, but she never wanted to say goodbye. 

It was over, too quickly, and Nico was swept into the crowd, being tugged along by Amy, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. 

\---- 

They wrote constantly that summer. 

Amy was going to be Head Girl (to absolutely no one’s surprise), Gert and Chase were fighting again (this time not about Karolina, thank god), and Molly was doing some reconnaissance, trying to find out more about her birth parents. She wanted to know if they were involved in Pride as well. 

Karolina, Chase and Gert were named Prefects, (Karolina had a suspicion she was only chosen because Pria was caught half naked behind a tapestry with Stacy from Slytherin, but that was neither here nor there). 

Alex stayed for a week with the Minoru’s, and apparently it was awkward the first few days, but then they just got a lot of research done. Not that the research helped much. 

They now knew who the bad wizard’s on Nico’s prophecy were, but they had no idea how disappearing wizard children had to do with the search for eternal life. 

At first they thought Horcruxes, but they would know if their parents souls were split right? It must be something else, but what?

Frank and her mother were hardly around the entire summer. It was a relief, but it still left a hollow ache in her stomach. Her father and mother were hardly living together anymore, (she felt so guilty that she didn’t notice they had been growing apart, who didn’t notice the demise of there parent’s marriage?); she remembered her parent’s dancing on the Seine and curled up by the fire like it was yesterday, what had happened?

Did Frank find out about Jonah? Or did he find out the truth about Pride, like Karolina had? What could make her parents, who she always thought were so in love, act like strangers?

Karolina still wasn’t sleeping well.

She was completely isolated that summer, and it chipping away at her slowly. 

She wasn’t even able to practice her powers, or her lights, or whatever- not really. She couldn’t use her wand, or magic because she was underage. Some days though, she spent her entire waking hours without her charmed bracelet; it was like not realizing you had been in prison until the cages opened. 

Still, she missed her friends. 

She would give up her near perfect exam scores and being perfect just to see Nico again, or too hug Molly, or argue with Gert, tease Chase, or even to just study beside Alex or Any, who would periodically mumble to themselves, glasses half askew on there face. 

Loneliness threatened to eat her up, and the monsters that used to reside in her dreams were replaced by new monsters, with much to familiar faces. 

\----

Karolina looked around the platform, and when she saw Nico, hair loose around her shoulders and dark make up, thick, around her eyes, it was like the sun came up, for the first time in months. 

“Nico!” Karolina didn’t even feel felt self conscious for shrieking, she was just so relieved to see her best friend, she ran over and hugged Nico, nearly knocking her down. 

She couldn’t bring herself to feel bad about it. 

“I missed you,” Nico said breathlessly into her hair. 

“I missed you more.” Karolina put Nico down, regretfully, smoothing down Nico’s hair that she had missed. 

“Always with the competition,” Nico grinned, “Must be all that Quidditch.”

“Must be.”

There was a pause, and Karolina wanted to fill it, to lean in and kiss Nico, but if that’s what she wanted Nico would have already kissed her, right? Maybe the kiss on the train station was a fluke. They had only kissed the two times-

“What are we?” Karolina blurted out, “We didn’t say in our letters.”

Karolina had to stop herself from wincing at her own words. 

“What are we,” Nico repeated, looking blankly up at her. 

“Like,” Karolina said, biting her lip, “Are we dating now-”

“I don’t want to change things between us-” Nico’s eye’s were huge, owlish, and she looked so worried, and Karolina’s stomach dropped. 

“Oh,” Being Nico’s friend could be enough, it would have to be enough. It was fine- this was fine.

Karolina was fine. 

It was fine. 

Fine.

“I don’t want to stop kissing, though,” Nico looked up at her through her eyelashes and Karolina’s heart just about stopped. 

“Okay,” Karolina croaked, but she nodded like she understood, but she really, truly did not. 

“Cool.” Karolina bit her lip before she answered. 

“Cool.”

\---- 

By Karolina’s estimation (who was kidding, she was totally keeping count,) she and Nico had kissed 13 times in the last four days. 

Which was great, it was great, really, really great; (she was getting addicted, which was less than great, because at some point Nico was going to get bored kissing her, and she was going to fresh out of luck… and crushed, completely crushed). 

Nico seemed to like kissing her though, which was something. Sometimes they would be studying, or walking, or whatever and Nico would stop them and just… Kiss her. 

Karolina still, felt a little light headed from there last kiss, which had dragged deliciously on for several minutes before breakfast. She had walked out of the Hufflepuff common room, and Nico was leaning against the wall waiting for her, looking unfairly cool. Nico threaded their fingers together, and kissed her cheek, before dragging her behind a coat of armour and where she gently pushed Karolina to the wall and kissed her senseless. 

Then she took Karolina’s books from her shaky hands and walked her to breakfast. 

But they weren’t dating. 

Honestly it was throwing Karolina for a loop. Everyone thought they were dating, they kissed, they held hands… But they were just best friends who kissed. If that was what Nico wanted she would go along with it, Karolina supposed, she didn’t want to rock the boat, not when they all were going through so much...

Karolina played with the food on her plate and then she felt a tap on her shoulder. 

It was Molly. 

“Karolina,” she said, worrying the strap of her book bag with two hands,“Can I talk to you for a second.”

“Sure.” Karolina turned her body on the bench, looking up expectantly at Molly, “What’s up?”

“Can we talk somewhere else,” Molly asked, “I can wait for you to finish your breakfast-”

“No, that’s okay” Karolina stood up, “I wasn’t really hungry, anyway. We can go right now.”

They walked by the greenhouses, and by the lake in mostly comfortable silence, Karolina decided that she would let Molly say what she needed to say, when she was ready, even if it took a few walks for her to say it. 

“I don’t know how to say this,” Molly said when they reached the banks of the lake. 

“You can tell me anything,” Karolina said, “You know that.”

“Yah.” Molly nodded. 

They walked a little farther. 

“I don’t remember the orphanage.”

“Sorry?” Karolina asked, cocking her head to the side. 

“I told you that my parents died when I was five, and I lived at an orphanage for a year until the Yorkes adopted me, right?”

“Right.” They talked about a lot of things; that was not something Karolina was likely to forget. 

“I remember my parents,” Molly’s voice was soft, and Karolina’s heart broke (she realized in that moment there was something worse than your parents being evil), “I remember the house we lived in. I remember being told they die. I don’t remember the orphanage. I remember being told my parents had died, and then being told I was being adopted by the Yorkes.”

“Maybe the trauma,” Karolina searched for rational explanations, and found herself coming up empty, “losing your parent’s. You were so young.”

“That’s what I thought too,” Molly said, she stopped in her tracks to look at Karolina, “But it doesn’t make sense to lose a whole year, and just my memory of the orphanage.”

“Are you thinking-”

“I think that I was at the Pride orphanage,” Molly grabbed Karolina’s arm, as though it was the only thing that was keeping her upright, “I think I was at the Pride orphanage. I think I was part of the experiments….Something happened…. This summer.”

“What happened?” It was like ice was being poured into her veins; possibilities flashed through Karolina’s mind, each one worse than the last. 

“I am strong,” Molly said, “Too strong.”

“Okay,” Karolina took a deep breath, “Show me.”

\----

Molly, indeed, was strong. 

She lifted up a tree branch that must have broken off in a storm that summer, like it was a textbook. When Karolina tried she couldn’t lift it an inch off the ground. 

Together they told everyone else. Molly hadn’t even told Gert yet, who was hurt but didn’t really have a leg to stand on, considering she had a dragon hiding in the woods that no one knew about for six months. 

Surprisingly, or not, everyone took the news in stride. This was there new normal: there parents were murderers, Nico was a seer who predicted the world was going to end if one of them didn’t die, Gert had a dragon, Molly was- in all likelihood- experimented on as a child and now could lift 1,000 kilograms over her head, and Karolina, well, Karolina glowed and they still weren't sure why. 

Strange and vaguely horrible was the new normal, and they just had to deal with it. 

Research continued, they now added magical experimentation on children to there docket, and the nights of research, just got longer and longer (being a Prefect was good for something- later curfew made things a lot easier, as did that weird map that Nico had found). 

Class continued… Unfortunately. 

Karolina still struggled with anything that required casting a spell (now that she knew why, it was more and more frustrating, if she didn’t think she would be carted away to St. Mungos, she would just do her vanishing spells in her fully glowy state). 

Nico and Karolina still kissed. 

Karolina was in love with Nico, she knew this, (she was pretty sure everyone but Nico knew this, based on how Gert looked at her, sometimes), but they weren’t dating. 

The weeks went by, and there kisses evolved into wandering hands and mouths, Nico giggling as she tugged Karolina behind a tapestry (she now had a newfound respect for Pria, this was so worth not being Perfect over). 

On there birthday they spent there day by the lake. They traded presents (Nico got her rose quartz earrings, that matched the ring and hairpin she had worn everyday since Nico gifted them to her- Karolina got Nico a set of new nail polishes, charmed to change with Nico’s mood, if she was casting a spell or not, or if danger was near), and then they kissed, going a bit farther than was really appropriate considering they were lying on a patch of grass that someone could walk right by, at any moment. 

Karolina fell asleep that night, her new earrings still in her ears, thinking about how Nico’s hand’s felt in her hair, and on the place were her legs were bare between the hem of her skirt and the top of her socks. Nico had taken to whispering things into her skin in between kisses. 

“Your beautiful.”

“Your special.” 

“I love that sound you make when I do this-”

But they weren’t dating, Nico made that very clear. They were best friends, who kissed, (and sometimes more, not like… everything… but more… just more). 

Someday, probably soon, Nico was going to announce she was done kissing Karolina, and was instead going to kiss some other girl or boy.

She didn’t know what it said about her as a person, but that kept her awake at night just as often as she worried about having murderers for parents. 

(Other, more pleasant dreams, occured as well; dreams that woke her up, gasping, and made her have to avoid Pria’s knowing smirk the next morning).

Quidditch became Karolina’s escape. It always had been. A reason to avoid her mother, a reason to spend time with her dad. A reason and a mode of escape, wrapped up in one. Quidditch was wonderful, and it was all hers, no one else's. 

This was different though. She had so many… Feelings… She felt like she was going to explode, most of the time. 

She trained harder, adding conditioning practices in the morning before breakfast, (sometimes Nico followed her out, snuck into the changing room, and they made out against her locker- Karolina was so playing with fire, it wasn’t even funny). 

They had a game against Slytherin in a month, and Karolina was going to win this game. She had never been more determined about anything; it was nice to work towards something, she felt like she could actually win. 

\----

“Your going to do great,” Molly said, as she tucked one of Karolina’s scarves around her neck- it was too long on her, and one end dangled by her knee. 

“Thanks Molly,” Karolina repressed a giggle; Molly hated being called cute, but she was really, really cute. 

“Yah,” Gert said, tucking a lock of her own hair behind her ear, charmed bright yellow on top, and sleek black on the bottom, for the occasion. Karolina had been touched by the gesture, especially considering Gert’s previous statements that she was ‘so over Quidditch’. Gert and Karolina, it seemed, had faded into an easy friendship. She still sensed tension between Gert and Chase, but that, mercifully, seemed to be completely about them, and not a bit about her. 

Gert halfheartedly punched Karolina’s shoulder as she muttered, “fly good.”

Karolina laughed.

“Thanks Gert.”

“I got you something,” Nico said, smiling at her, leaning against a tapestry hanging by the great Hall Entrance.

Gert covered Molly’s eyes, and Karolina blushed. 

“Not that you perv,” Nico rolled her eyes. “Here.”

Nico placed a flat, smooth, dark stone in her palm, like the kind that you would use to skip across a pond. Carved into the top was a rune that Karolina recognized-

“It’s for good luck,” Nico said, lifting her heel off the ground, “But you know that, you take runes and I don’t, I just thought-”

Karolina kissed her, stopping Nico’s ramble mid sentence, and her heart soared as Nico melted into her. 

She grinned as they parted.

“I am so glad you two are together,” Molly said brightly.

Nico’s entire body tensed, and Karolina’s heart dropped. 

“Right,” Karolina said, not meeting anyone’s eye’s, “I better get going. Thanks for the… Thanks Nico.” 

Before anyone could say anything else, she fled. 

She got ready on autopilot. She didn’t want to think about anything but Quidditch. 

She couldn’t make Nico love her like she did, but she could win this game, for her team, for her house, for herself; as she finished getting dressed she notice Nico’s gift, still secure in her pocket. 

She looked down at the small rock, and she tucked it into her pocket of her Quidditch uniform. A little luck wouldn’t hurt anyone.

\----

Everything was black, except for sparks behind her eyes, and the quiet comotion of rising and falling voices, and papers rustling. 

“She’s going to be okay, Nico.”

Was that Chase?

“You don’t know that.”

That was definitely Nico. 

Her voice sounded ragged, like it had been raked over with a razor. Karolina’s heart hurt (everything hurt, but now her heart, especially). 

She didn’t want Nico to be hurting… Why was she hurting? 

Karolina was fine, she was pretty sure she was fine, anyway. She should say something so she knows that. 

She doesn’t want Nico too worry, but she is not sure she could open her eye’s right now…

Was someone holding her hand? 

Nico, it must be Nico. Her voice was closest, and she was the only one who she ever held hands with, except for Molly sometimes, but she didn’t hear hear Molly’s voice.

Her hand, maybe hands, are warm and it’s nice, really nice, she could just go back to sleep-

No. She needed to focus. 

Quidditch, she had been playing Quidditch.

The game had been fast, brutal- more so than usual. It felt like she was dodging bludgers every ten seconds; she realized early on that was Slytherin's strategy- they didn’t even bother trying to get the Chaser’s, she hardly had time to search for the snitch. Even so, she spotted it within the first fifteen minutes, it was near one of the goal posts, high above the pitch, and Slytherins seeker has hundreds of feet away, looking the opposite direction.

So she went for, flying straight towards it, dodging a bludger, and one of her own chasers and-

She had caught the snitch, she remembered that. She had been so happy. She remembered the crowd’s cheering, she remembered raising it above her head-

Then black. So much darkness. 

Where was she?

Well, Karolina reasoned, her head still foggy, if she wanted to know, she just needed to open her eyes. 

So she did. 

“Nico?” Karolina asked, as she blinked, the lights much to bright in the… Hospital Wing… She must be in the Hospital Wing. 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Nico leaned in, she was sitting in a chair by her bed, “How are you feeling-”

Nico was holding one of her hands in both of hers, and she kissed it once, then twice. Even though she was groggy, even though pain thrummed through her entire body, she felt those kisses, long after they were placed on the back of her hand, still tightly held by Nico’s. 

“I don’t know-”

“Get Madam Pomfrey, Chase-”

“Yah, you got it,” Karolina hadn’t seen Chase. but she heard him rush out of the room. 

“What happened?” Karolina asked, she tried to sit up, but she found she couldn’t. She tried moving her arms a bit and found she could, much to her relief. 

Nico’s smile was so big, it was like she glowed from within. Not for the first time, Karolina wondered why anyone looked at her when she was next to Nico. 

“Someone hit a bludger at you, right as you grabbed the snitch. You fell of your broom.”

“Did we win?” Karolina closed her eye’s, trying to shake away the fog obscuring her vision, “I mean, did they count my points when I caught-”

Nico’s face darkened.

“I can’t believe you're asking me that.”

“Why?” Karolina asked, still a little confused about how that was an unreasonable question. She was fine, wasn’t she? Even if she wasn’t...

“I am so mad at you.”

Karolina wished she could cross her arms, (they were a bit too sore for her to manage that, at the moment).

She felt a little petulant. It wasn’t like she wanted to get hit by a bludger. 

Then Nico started to cry. 

“I’m sorry,” Karolina felt her own lip quiver; she didn’t want Nico to cry, ever. How the hell had she managed to fuck things up, while only being awake for 2 minutes? “What did I do wrong?”

“You fell,” Nico just cried harder; she was still in one of Karolina’s hufflepuff sweaters, but it was too long in the sleeves so they were rolled up, “You were up, almost a hundred feet, and you just fell.”

“I’m sorry,” Karolina whispered.

“Don’t be sorry,” Nico brushed away her tears angrily, “Don’t do it again.”

“Okay,” Karolina said nodding rapidly, causing her to wince, almost immediately after; it felt like her entire body was a bruise. 

She wasn’t expecting Nico to kiss her but she did.

(She never expected Nico to kiss her, she always thought the kiss would be there last.)

She was already feeling winded, but that kiss knocked the rest of her breath, right out of her. 

Hell of a way to go.

This wasn’t like some of the other kisses they shared, soft and sweet, or spurred on by curiosity and the want for for more, more, more-

This was a kiss the was like a wave crashing, she could hardly breath, hardly think, it was just Nico, Nico, Nico-

“I am in love with you,” Nico said in one breath, her hands still holding Karolina’s face, “So you can’t do that again.”

“I can do that,” Karolina’s head spun, but she was smiling, too. “I am in love you too.”

It was almost anticlimactic because it felt so right. Of course they loved each other, were in love with each other. All those months of angst, of staring at the ceiling imaging the person Nico would pick over her, disaperated. Even Pride couldn’t touch her, not in this moment. It was like the universe had been out of synch, a flaw in the system, and now it was righted once more. 

It was a stupid, hyperbolic thing to think, but God, in this moment, Karolina really couldn’t have cared less. 

There parents, and worrying about labels was background noise. 

Nico loved her. 

Nico was sitting on her bed, and her hands were everywhere, stroking her hair, holding her face. It was wonderfully, quiet affection in motion. 

“Yah?” Nico’s expression softened.

“Yah,” Karolina was sure she would never stop smiling, “You were the one who just wanted us to kiss-”

“I was just trying to get what I could, before you found someone better-”

“That’s what I thought you were going to do,” Karolina started crying, and she wasn’t sure why, maybe it was the combination, so much joy, so much relief, so much pain. 

“We are such idiots,” Nico hiccuped, half laugh, half sob and Karolina found she could move her arms enough to reach up and wipe away the tears. 

“Yah,” Karolina laughed, “Total idiots.”

Nico kissed her again. 

Chase came crashing back into the Hospital Wing, healer in tow, and Nico was half on top of Karolina. 

“There is plenty of time for that later girls,” Madam Pomfrey said brusquely, as she shuffled up to the side of the bed, “Honestly-”

Karolina started laughing, and once she started, she could not stop, much to Madam Pomfrey’s chagrin. 

Nico was so embarrassed, she just hid her face in Karolina’s collarbone, before sliding back into her chair as Madam Pomfrey flitted about, administering healing spells, and giving Karolina a potion that tasted like crushed pepper and lemon (not entirely unpleasant, she would admit, though it did make her sneeze). 

Everyone came by, Amy, Alex, Molly, Gert, and Chase. She got Chase to tell them the score of the game, (only when Nico finally left her side to use the bathroom) Hufflepuff won- barely. 

Molly slipped something into her hand. It was Nico’s gift, the rune- it must have fallen out of her pocket when she fell. 

“We should snap up all the good luck we can.”

Karolina had to hold back tears. 

Her team came by as well, all congratulating and at one point breaking into the Hufflepuff fight song; her captain even promised to sneak her some fire whiskey before they had their victory party (Karolina declined politely, she was pretty sure fire whiskey was the last thing she needed during her recovery). 

Her roommates came by too, bringing up more sweets, flowers, pillows and blankets then really fit in around her hospital bed. They fretted about, consummate Hufflepuffs, and she had to admit, she was touched. Nico curled a little closer, from her place on Karolina’s bed, playing with one of the throw blankets; when she studied her face, she realized that expression was poorly disguised jealousy. 

Pria must have noticed, because she smirke. 

“Come on ladies,” Pria threw her hair over one shoulder and winked, “Let’s give the lovebirds some privacy.”

Nico started to sputter, but Karolina, close to immune to her roommate's antics just mouthed ‘thank you’. 

The Slytherin beater, Julian came by dragged by her housemate Stacy (Pria’s Stacey, Karolina noted to herself), to apologize. Karolina had to keep herself from giggling as she accepted it; Stacy was glaring at Julian, and Pria, who had come with Stacy, was glaring from the corner, and Julian just looked miserable. 

If she didn’t feel like she had been run over by a hippogriff, that alone would have been worth the fall. 

(It wouldn’t have been worth it, though, because she scared Nico; as amazing is that moment was, it wasn’t worth making Nico cry). 

Eventually people started to go back to their own rooms, to victory parties and dinner in the Great Hall, and Karolina was secretly, a bit grateful. All the noise and commotion and attention, while well meant, was intense. 

Karolina would have to spend the night in the Hospital Wing, but would be released the next day. 

Nico refused to go back to her room, even when Karolina told her she would be alright. No one had the heart to threaten her with detention, so there she stayed.

Nico waited for Madam Pomfrey to go to bed before she climbed into bed with Karolina.

"This okay,” Nico asked, Karolina found her throat dried up, but she managed to nod.

It took some situating (Karolina was covered in bruises, and had several healing bones, after all).

“Yep,” Karolina squeaked. 

They had never done this, platonically or not. Not that anything was going to happen, but, still… 

Nico was curled around her in bed, and that meant something, it had to mean something-

Karolina realized two things, Nico was being uncharacteristically quiet, and she might not be the only one whose mind was racing. 

“I’m still in love with you,” Karolina said, right before she kissed Nico’s hair, once, then twice. 

“That right,” There was a smile in Nico’s voice, but a bit of relief too. 

“Just incase you were worried about it.”

“Well in that case,” Nico looked up, and kissed a patch of unbruised skin on her collarbone, “I am still in love with you. Incase you were the one who was worried about it.”

“Thanks,” Karolina muffled, suddenly feeling embarrassed. 

“No problem,” Nico settled in, her eyes closing, “You are my favorite.”

“You are too.” Karolina said, but before she could say anything else, the world faded and she fell, blissfully asleep. 

\---

When Karolina woke up, there was fog over her eyes. She blinked up at the ceiling, she quickly realized two things; there was too much noise in the small hospital wing, and Nico was’t next to her, and because of that everything was colder and less pleasant than it had been when she had fell asleep.

“Nico,” Karolina sat up, pleasantly surprised she only had a mild ache, not unlike the morning after a particularly rough practice; say what you want, but Madam Pomfrey knew her stuff, “Is everything-” 

Before she could finish, she saw Nico curled up in the corner of the room, much to far away, with tears streaming down her face. 

“What happened?” 

Nico didn’t answer her. It was only then did she notice Alex, pacing, hair every which way, his hand clutching his wand. 

“Alex what’s going on?”

“Amy was cursed,” Alex looked like a wild animal, his leg trapped in a cage; Karolina had never seen him less in control, “She went out this morning. She touched something-”

Karolina, only then, noticed the chaos surrounding them. 

It was late, 10 or 11 in the morning- she must have been knocked out by the potions from the night before, that is the only way that could explain how she slept through all of that. There were adult wizards she had never seen before, right outside the door, talking in low voices. The Hospital Wing looked wrecked, like a whole group had rushed in, potions knocked over-

And then there was Amy…

She was lying in a hospital bed, a few down from her own, and her skin was sallow and it was as though she had aged twenty years in a day-

How could this be possible? Amy had been in this same room, hours before. She had teased Nico, and ruffled Karolina’s hair, and it had felt like she had a big sister too. 

Now…. 

“Is she going to be okay?” Karolina said quietly. Nico’s head whipped around, as though for the first time she realized that she was still there. 

“I don’t know,” Nico said, “Fuck, I don’t know.”

“This had to have been Pride,” Alex had stopped pacing, and was now looking out the window.

“We have to get everyone together-” Karolina said quickly, her mind feeling distinctly less foggy. If this was Pride, and it would be a hell of a coincidence if it wasn’t, then they needed to get ready. After all, if they knew that the Pride Kids were not in the dark, that made everything a lot more urgent, and a hell of a lot more dangerous. 

“I am not leaving her-” Alex said, just as Nico protested, “You are still injured-”

“I’m fine and no one will notice if I leave early.” Karolina, was already half out of bed, luckily here pajamas didn’t look much different to what she usually wore around hogwarts on weekends, muggle leggings and a T-shirt, “Not now. Amy will be okay for an hour or two. This room is going to be filled with aurora and professors, I am surprised it’s not know-”

“I still don’t think-”

“Madam Pomfrey is in the next room,” Nico said, “She would die before anything happened to a patient. We should talk to the others and then we will come back. We can stay by her bedside all night 

“We have to decide the best way to protect her, together.”

At that, Alex nodded, and they saw Madam Pomfrey flit back into the wing, just as they slipped into the hallway; Karolina cringed as she heard the healer call after them. 

\-----

“We have to run,” Gert said, her hands twisting and turning a bit of parchment until it closer resembled dust, “If they would do this to Amy none of us are safe-”

“We are at Hogwarts, if we just stay we will be safe-”

“Amy wasn’t at Hogwarts,” Molly said, “Right?”

“She was in the village,” Gert said, “Alone. Why was she alone, how was she alone, it’s not a Hogsmeade weekend-”

“Are you saying this is her fault?” Alex said, standing up. 

“Of course not!” Gert said quickly, “I am just asking why-”

“We should be asking how fast can we get the hell out of dodge-”

“If we run,” Nico said, her voice deadly calm, “We are leaving Amy hear, vulnerable. We have to stay and protect her.”

“You're right,” Karolina reached out and took Nico’s hand, “We can’t leave her behind.”

“We have to be smart about this,” Nico continued, “Keep up the research, keep vigilant, but also be ready to escape, when… Well when the time comes.”

“When Amy dies-” Molly’s eyes were like saucers. 

“No,” Karolina raised up a hand, placatingly, even as she squeezed Nico’s hand a little tighter, “When she wakes up.”

“Amy must have been close to something,” Alex said, “If they would resort to murdering their own children.”

There was a general murmur of agreement, but Karolina had the sinking suspicion that their parents were willing to go a lot further than that. This didn’t seem like the best time to share that dark opinion, especially when everything was already so grim. 

“We have to retrace her steps,” Alex had said, “then we will no what happened to her, then we can save her.”

Everyone nodded with agreement. 

“We’ll take shifts,” Nico said, “staying with Amy-”

“I’ll go first.” Before anyone could say anything, Alex was out of the door. Everyone stood for a moment, unsure what to do, until Nico went to Amy’s usual seat, with her research stacked just so. 

“We’ll start here.” 

Karolina didn’t know if she believed Alex, that the truth was in this research, but she knew better than to argue, especially when Nico agreed. Alex and Nico loved Amy best, it was only fair that they would get to decide there next steps. 

\----

Life kept going, but nothing felt the same. 

They kept going through the motions, trying not to change there routine to much, lest they garner more suspicion. 

So the Prefects kept up there duties, Karolina went back to Quidditch practice, and they all went to there classes. They sat with Amy too, as they studied or tried to hear the murmurs of Madam Pomfrey and the visiting healers. 

Hogsmeade trips were canceled for the year; the professors informed then that there was a rogue dark wizard at large, and that they were doing there best to arrest them. 

Alex had rolled his eyes. 

“My parents are working very hard I’m sure.”

There was a harshness in his voice that had never been there before. Karolina had trouble looking at him, it was like looking at an open wound. After all, would Karolina be doing any better if it was Nico lying in that hospital bed? She would have been torn in two. She couldn’t judge Alex, even as he snapped, his behavior more and more erratic. 

Karolina and Nico spent a lot of time together, (they always had, so things didn’t change, all that much, except when they said goodnight Nico would kiss her and say “I love you”, into her lips.)

They also were almost never not touching, if they were together. They always had been rather… physical, even when they were just friends, but now it was different. If they were studying Nico would have a hand on her leg. When they walked together, in the mornings, Karolina would sling an arm over Nico’s shoulder. The sweetness of being with Nico, really being with Nico, was soured by Pride, by the constant fear for Amy, and for themselves. They could be taken away from each other, at anytime. It made them hold onto each other tighter, and sometimes when they kissed Nico’s hands bordered on rough, her kisses messy, as though she could forget herself in Karolina (she always let her, whatever she needed, and if she was honest, she needed that too, to forget herself in the girl she loved). 

Research continued to be tedious. They aren't finding anything new, and Nico still hadn't had another prophecy. Even Amy’s notes proved useless, half of it was written in some sort of shorthand that none of them could figure out.

It was decided, they would go to the next Pride meeting, one the kids were not invited to, early in December. They needed to be the one to strike first. They couldn’t just wait around, not any long. 

The day of the meeting came to quickly. It was like a dream, a strange, surreal, horrible dream. Everything happened much to fast, almost like everything was happening at once. 

They found a magical fire, the one used for Aurrors and Healers to come through, ironically, to visit Amy and the Headmaster to discuss the cursing of a student. It was guarded, but half of the group were prefects, Professors didn’t watch her mouth around them to the same extent, they had longer curfews, and it didn’t look odd for them to be in odd parts of the castle, late at night. 

It was easy, almost to easy to get to the fire. They all slipped in, one by one. Alex knew a spell that helped camouflage them into the walls, he had been practicing for weeks, and it was almost as good as an invisibility cloak. 

It was a party, a Christmas party, and everyone was too drunk to notice the sound of shuffling with no corresponding figure. 

There parent’s weren’t at the party. 

By accident Molly found a secret door. 

They went down a corridor, and then another. There parents were there, at least it seemed like there parent’s, they were in blood red coats, not dress robes, but something more… official. They were surrounding some sort of device. 

“Who's that?” Alex asked, is voice even softer than a whisper. 

“Jonah. Her father,” Nico said, before amending, “Biological father.”

Karolina felt rage burn through her fingertips, of course he was involved.Then much too slowly. Every second dragged on, longer than the one before.

Then… 

Then something…

She knew, she had known about the children disappearing. She knew that bad things were happening but…

She had to stop herself from screaming, stop herself from trying to tear apart her own mother with her two hands. 

There was a girl, maybe eighteen, maybe younger. There was a box, and chanting and a spell, and she was crying at first, and then she wasn’t-

At first she was quiet and then she was gone. 

Everything moved fast again, and they were running, back to Hogwarts. Before Karolina knew it they were in the Room of Requirements.

Karolina wouldn’t meet anyone’s eye, not even Nico’s. She knew they did, she knew it in her very bones, but she couldn’t bare to be the one who confirmed it-

Chase was the one to break the silence. 

“Did they really kill that kid,” 

“I know how to find out,” Gert said suddenly, “Follow me.”

They walked down, in a daze, to the very edge of the forbidden forest. 

“They usually gather here,” Gert muttered, mostly to herself, “Or so I’m told.”

“Who does?”

They heard rustling in the trees. 

It was a skeletal creature, almost a horse, but not quite. 

“What is that.” Karolina said haltingly, her stomach dropped. 

They were oddly beautiful, certainly noble, but there was something strange about them, too.

Like she shouldn’t be able to see them. 

“A thestral,” Gert closed her eyes, tears slowly running down her cheek, “They drive the carriages to and from Hogwarts and the station-”

“But we’ve never seen them before,” Molly looked at Gert, “How is that possible?”

“Gert,” Nico said quietly, “What are you not telling us?” 

“You only can see a thestral,” Gert said, “If you have seen someone die.” 

That girl was dead. They killed her. 

Molly turned white, and Chase gasped. Alex didn’t react, which was almost worse, but his hands balled into fists, like he was ready to fight (who, though, they were just six kids in the woods- no one responsible for this was within a hundred miles of them).

Nico though, curled into Karolina, and started sobbing, and she held her tight to her body, but she knew that she couldn’t make this better, that nothing she did would make this better. 

So she just held her tighter and let her sob. 

Karolina didn’t cry though, she just stood there, as she looked at each of her friends in turn. They all looked the same, but she knew that they weren’t. 

They would never be the same again. 

\----

Christmas was a lot less festive after that. They didn’t exchange presents, but all of them brought fresh flowers to Amy’s bedside.

It was a relief to everyone when the rest of their roommates arrived, and they could go back to normal. 

Or pretend anyway. 

Amy’s coma was especially hard on Nico, she could see it wear on her. They would be sitting together and Karolina would catch her staring off into the distance, eyes glossy. 

Nico told her she was having nightmares, bad ones, that her roommates were getting worried about her. She said it in that typical way of hers, off hand and joking, but that smile didn't reach her eyes. Karolina only nodded, and smoothed down Nico’s hair, and kissed her cheek. 

After that she started sneaking into Ravenclaw after Prefect duty, and crawling into Nico’s bed. Nico would hold on to her, and sometimes that's enough, sometimes she would cry into her shoulder, sobs wracking her body. 

Nico’s roommates didn’t say anything, they didn’t even tease. Karolina would always leave before morning to sneak into her own bed, but…

It was better than nothing. They were all just doing their best. There wasn’t much else they could do

\----

Nico and Karolina were in the library, trying to study, a few weeks after Christmas, when Alex came running in. 

“Amy woke up!” Alex nearly screamed it, as he rounded the corner

Karolina and Nico abandoned half there books as they grabbed their bags and rushed to the Hospital Wing. 

The wing was empty, except for Amy, who looked a bit pale, a bit thin but otherwise completely like herself. She was even dressed, not in the thin robes she had been wearing during her coma, but back to her neat skirt, sweater and flats. 

“Who knows that I am awake?” Amy said, calm as can be, even as Nico almost knocked her over with a hug, tears streaming down her face.

“Just us,” Alex said, “Madam Pomfrey is writing everyone now-”

“So, Mom and Dad will find out soon I reckon-”

“We need to go now-” The calm in Amy’s voice evaporated. 

“What do you mean?” 

“A man in a muggle suit,” Amy said quickly, “He had this weird pull to him-”

“Jonah.” Karolina nodded, looking at Nico and Alex for confirmation, “It has to be Jonah.”

“Jonah was the one who tried to kill me, I know to much, he will try again, with all of you if we don’t leave now.”

“I don’t understand-”

“I’ll explain we have to run,” Amy stood up, her legs shaking, “Now.”

\----

They split up, finding the others, grabbing the go bags they had stashed in the Room of Requirements, everything happening in a blur of activity. 

In record time they were out of the halls onto the grounds, (Pride kids being mostly Prefects, really helped in breaking rules, Karolina thought, not for the first time- life sure was filled with little ironies). 

Karolina was riding her broom, but she was the only one- the rest were profficent but not much more (Nico and Amy, who had the most experience, beside herself, hadn’t been on a broom in at least 4 years). Nico would ride on the back of Karolina’s broom, and then Molly and Chase, and Amy and Alex would ride on the back of two thestrals, respectively. 

Gert was riding her dragon. 

Did she really not know how cool she was? Karolina supposed that was an inquiry better made at a later date. 

Karolina knew she should be terrified, and she was, but it didn’t stop the giddiness of flying (especially when Nico was holding on, her arms tight, and secure around her stomach). 

They flew, following Amy’s shouted directions, and the sky turned from pink, to purple, to pitch black- it was like it was too dark for the stars to shine (Karolina knew that was impossible, but her perception of impossible had been a fluid concept as of late). 

It should have scared her, running away, away from Hogwarts, away from the only place she had ever truly been at home. She just felt relieved, they were all together, they were all alive, and they were finally doing something. They weren’t just waiting for Pride to pick them off one by one, for the first time, Karolina felt like maybe they could win.

It was only when they landed, in a forest that Karolina didn’t recognize (they had been traveling for hours, there was a good chance they weren’t in Scotland anymore), that the seven of them were able to talk. 

“What is going on?” Gert said, sliding off of Old Lace, patting her neck affectionately, even as the dragon regarded the rest of them suspiciously. 

“I found out what Pride is doing” Amy said, clearly out of breath, looking worryingly pale. Four hours on a thestral after waking up from a magical coma, was less than idea. “That’s what they are working towards, that’s what the experimentations are about. All of it.”

“It makes sense.” Alex said, nodding, “That’s why you were targeted.”

“There is a creature…” Amy said, “Something like we have never seen, no one has ever seen. They are sacrificing children to keep it happy; They want to cure the world of death, of disease, that’s why they experiment. If we don’t stop them, there is chance that what they are doing, what they are experimenting will level the entire wizarding world. Instead of all wizards being immortal. They will… They will…”

Amy stopped talking, and they all learned unconsciously in. 

“We have to stop it-”

“How?” Gert said, running a hand through her hair. 

“That’s the one part of the puzzle that we know.”

“Yes we do, that’s the only part we do know-” Karolina said suddenly. 

“No one can live.” Nico said, “Until that one dies.”

“Jonah.”

The words were all unspoken, but they looked at each other, all the relief of escaping evaporating. Who would be the one to die killing Jonah? The seer, the child of light, the orphan or the dragon child? 

“We need to find Jonah first,” Alex said quietly, always the diplomat. All of the panic that had seeped out of every pore was now gone; another reason to be grateful of Amy’s recovery. 

“Well then,” Karolina said, squaring her shoulder’s trying to seem less scared than she was, “That’s what we will have to do.”

“I have a feeling that is going to be easier said than done.” Molly said. 

Like usual, Karolina was sure she was right. 

\----

“I guess we are fugitives now,” Karolina mumbled, head on Nico’s shoulder. 

“Head Girl,” Nico shook her head, “four prefects, Molly whose as close to an angel as I ever met. Who would have thought you all would end up like this.”

“What were you destined for a life of crime?”

“Maybe,” Karolina could hear the smile in her voice. 

Karolina shook her head and laughed. 

“I don’t know what goes on in that head of yours sometimes.”

“Nothing good,” Nico smirked, a hint of innuendo that sent a shock down Karolina’s spine, “I can promise you that.”

“Shut up,” Karolina blushed. 

“Make me.”

“I would,” Karolina didn’t, but she did curl up a little more into Nico, “But I don’t want scar everyone for life.”

“Like Chase and Gert have any room to talk-” Karolina hadn’t actually realized they were dating, or hooking up or whatever. She would have to ask Gert about that latter...

“What about Molly?”

“Okay fair enough.”

Nico kissed her, softly, but she bit Karolina’s bottom lip too, then soothed it with her; she was swooning. 

“That was perfectly respectable,” Nico smirked. 

“You and I have two different definitions of that word.”

The sun was setting, and a chill started permeating, it didn’t matter that she had on heavy layers, or the fire burning quietly behind them. 

They had made camp in a forest somewhere in Ireland. Amy and Alex had put up all the protection spells, the rest were stuck- underage magic would send up a flair to the Ministry of Magic, and by extension, their parents. 

It was an odd camp, to say the least, a small-ish dragon (although small didn’t seem the right descriptor when Old Lace was staring down at you), two thestrals, and seven witches and wizards around a magical fire. 

Karolina and Nico were sitting a bit away from the rest, close enough to hear the rise and fall of voices, but not close enough to hear the words they were saying. 

“Are we going to be okay?” Nico asked quietly, her eyes trained on her fire. 

“I don’t know,” Karolina answered, “But we are all alive. We have a plan.”

They both let the particulars of the plan go unsaid. At least for tonight. 

“We aren't the pride kids anymore.” Nico broke the comfortable silence, “I mean, we never really were, but… We really aren't now.”

“No we aren't,” Karolin looked at Nico with a sad sort of smile, as she laced her fingers together with hers, “No, now we are the runaways.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! I know this is a really late post, BUT the next chapters should be coming faster. I have the last chapter done, and the other two 1/3rd done each. I have been traveling, but am home now :) 
> 
> I hope you enjoy! Please leave a kudos/comment, they make my day, and make me much more motivated to finish a chapter! 
> 
> Thanks y'all <3

**Author's Note:**

> What do y'all think? 
> 
> The next chapter will be Karolina POV, and take place during first year, so stay tuned for that :)


End file.
